Baseball earns series win over Stanford after back-and-forth third game

UCLA baseball led by as many as four runs early in Saturday’s contest, but just a few innings later, the Bruins were down by a run, and down to their last strike.

“Our backs were up against the wall,” said coach John Savage. “We had a 4-0 lead and then it was 4-2, then it was 5-3, then we were down 6-5. We played a lot of close games and it’s a never-say-die attitude.”

After five shutout innings from sophomore starting pitcher Jon Olsen, UCLA (16-16, 9-6 Pac-12) put itself in a good position to take the series against the Stanford Cardinal (19-12, 5-7).

Freshmen pinch hitter Kyle Cuellar delivered a game-tying RBI double into the left-center gap on a 2-2 pitch to tie the gat at six.

A one-out double in the 10th inning from senior Brett Stephens, followed by a single through the left side from freshman Michael Toglia sealed the 7-6 extra-inning win.

“I saw resiliency,” Olsen said. “We came out and battled today. We were down 6-5 in the bottom of the ninth and found out a way to scrape out a run.”

Olsen gave up only two hits and two walks, recording five strikeouts.

“That’s when I am playing my best – when I am pounding strikes,” Olsen said. “When I am not playing that well, it’s when I am not getting ahead of hitters. It was good today, I was getting ahead of guys.”

The first Cardinal run was scored in the sixth inning when senior relief pitcher Scott Burke took over. Burke gave up two runs in 1 1/3 innings of work.

Junior closer Jake Bird tossed only one inning, but gave up four runs to the Cardinal to take the one-run lead heading into the ninth.

“He’s still rusty for whatever reason,” Savage said. “He just wasn’t real sharp with his pitches and they made him pay. It’s April baseball, guys aren’t rusty. You have to give Stanford credit, they hit Bird around a little bit.”

Offensively, the Bruins started scoring early on.

With one out in the second inning, redshirt sophomore Zander Clarke, who came into the game hitting .129, drilled a homer out to right center to score the Bruins’ first run of the game.

In his next plate appearance, Clarke slugged a double into the right-field corner with two outs in the fourth inning. An RBI double from Toglia scored Clarke from second and gave the Bruins a 2-0 lead.

“It was a good matchup for Zander today with a left-handed pitcher. He’s shown some power over the fall and winter and he just hasn’t run into some balls and he did today,” Savage said.

The Bruins doubled their lead in the sixth inning from a two-run homer from Toglia. Freshman Chase Strumpf hit his fourth home run of the year in the eighth inning over the left-field wall.

“We have a lot talent in this freshmen class and I think the more we play the more people see that,” Savage said. “The more those guys play and the more experience they get, the better they are going to be.”

The Bruins showed small signs of struggle defensively. Over the course of the series, they tallied five errors. UCLA only had seven errors prior to the weekend series.

“We didn’t take care of the baseball as well as we can and that cost us (Friday),” Savage said. “It kind of got us in a little trouble (Saturday). We need to play better catch. We need to take care of the baseball better.”

Friday

The Cardinal evened the series Friday, taking Game 2 5-3 after dropping Thursday’s game. The Bruins collected nine hits, four more than the Cardinal, but gave up three errors and three unearned runs.

The game was tied 3-3 in the sixth inning. With bases loaded for Stanford, UCLA misplayed two bunts, allowing one run to score. A base hit later, the Cardinal added another run.

The bullpen received some rest Thursday night as junior Griffin Canning threw a shutout. The three relief pitchers who entered the game Friday kept Stanford scoreless after the sixth inning, giving up only one hit.

On Friday, senior righty Moises Ceja went five innings, allowing five runs – two earned – on four hits. Ceja suffered his third loss of the year.