Baseball finishes weekend home sweep of Arizona, defends No. 1 spot in nation

With Ryan Garcia finally back to full strength, the Bruins rode his arm to victory.

No. 1 UCLA baseball (17-4, 5-1 Pac-12) completed the sweep against Arizona (13-10, 2-4) with a 3-1 victory Sunday after 10-5 and 12-10 wins in the previous two games. After scoring 8.5 runs per game over their past four, the Bruins scored just three in the series finale but were able to pull out the victory in Garcia’s first weekend start of the season.

The junior right-hander made his season debut against Oklahoma State on March 9 in a scoreless, one-inning relief appearance after missing 12 games with a flexor injury. On March 12, he got the start against Long Beach State, but only went two innings and 30 pitches deep. His longest day of the season was a 4 2/3 inning relief appearance against Oregon State, in which he threw 72 pitches and allowed two earned runs.

Garcia threw 7 1/3 scoreless frames Sunday, starting with 3 1/3 hitless innings. He let up a single with one down in the fourth but forced the next batter into a double play to retire the side in order. That would be the only hit he allowed all day, with the final Wildcat to reach base safely.

The junior left with a one-run lead, courtesy of a solo shot from junior first baseman Michael Toglia in the seventh. After junior right-hander Kyle Mora let up a game-tying RBI single in the eighth, junior left fielder Jack Stronach slapped the ball deep to right field for a game-winning, two-run home run.

But Garcia wasn’t the only UCLA starter to give the Arizona bats trouble.

Sophomore right-hander Zach Pettway entered Friday with a 2.67 ERA after tossing seven scoreless innings against then-No. 3 Oregon State on March 15. Pettway went seven deep against against the Wildcats, this time picking up a season-high 10 strikeouts and lowering his ERA to 2.66.

Redshirt junior right-hander Jack Ralston – who owned a 1.86 ERA before the series – didn’t fare as well Saturday. Ralston allowed a season-high seven runs in a season-low three innings, letting Arizona jump out to a 5-4 lead. The Wildcats extended their lead to 10-8 before sophomore right-hander Michael Townsend got pulled in the fifth.

UCLA had three extra-base hits through five innings but posted three more over the next three innings to take the lead. Junior second baseman Chase Strumpf jacked his fourth home run of the year to tie the game at 10 in the sixth.

Arizona coach Jay Johnson got tossed in the bottom of the eighth with the game still tied, but after back-to-back walks to start the inning, UCLA took the lead for good on a wild pitch and an RBI double by Toglia.

UCLA totaled 32 hits and a .337 batting average in the series, with 11 different Bruins picking up at least one RBI.