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No. 8 UCLA baseball sweeps College Baseball Classic with 10-1 win over USC

Senior left fielder Pat Caulfield drove in No. 8 UCLA baseball’s first four runs en route to a three-hit day as the Bruins won their fifth straight game. (Andy Bao/Daily Bruin staff)

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By Sam Connon

March 7, 2021 8:37 p.m.

This post was updated March 7 at 11:10 p.m.

While the Trojans’ bats fell quiet, senior left fielder Pat Caulfield’s came to life.

No. 8 UCLA baseball (8-3) beat USC (3-6) by a score of 10-1 on Sunday afternoon, winning its fifth straight game and sweeping its way through the College Baseball Classic at Jackie Robinson Stadium. The Bruins outscored their opponents 32-10 on the weekend while the Trojans lost all three of their outings and were outscored 26-6.

“West Coast baseball is very difficult to win games,” said coach John Savage. “You’re starting to see what type of team we can be and I think this weekend was a pretty good display.”

USC recorded three hits all game – a bunt on the first at-bat of the game and two singles in the top of the ninth. Junior right-hander Nick Nastrini faced 20 more batters after the leadoff single in the first and only four were able to reach base, three via walks and another by getting hit by a pitch.

“When he was in the zone, (Nastrini) was pretty good,” Savage said. “We’d like to have him in the zone a little bit more, but at the end of the day, he gave us what we wanted.”

Even with the four free base runners for the Trojans and Nastrini’s three wild pitches, he was able to work himself out of jams in the first and fourth innings. USC went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position against Nastrini, who picked up nine strikeouts in 5.1 innings of work.

Nastrini said whenever he would get in a tough spot, he would stare out to the center field wall and zero in on the circle of the nine in the 395-foot sign to pull himself together.

“We take a lot of pride in our mental game here,” Nastrini said. “Just getting to that, making sure that I stay in my lane (and) push the pitch, that’s pretty much how I got out of those jams.”

Sophomore left-hander Jake Saum carried UCLA the rest of the way, striking out six and hitting the zone on 80% of his pitches. Even after allowing an earned run in the top of the ninth, his ERA on the season only went up to 1.80 – just slightly above Nastrini’s 1.53 mark.

The Bruins’ offense took advantage of the pitching staff’s performance and helped turn Sunday’s victory into a blowout by scoring double-digit runs for the third time in four games. The first four of those runs came off the bat of Caulfield, giving UCLA a cushion all afternoon long.

“He’s very valuable, (Caulfield)’s got a great attitude,” Savage said. “He gave us some really good at-bats today, it’s good to see.”

The Bruins got the scoring started in the third inning after freshman third baseman Kyle Karros and redshirt junior center fielder Kevin Kendall recorded back-to-back one-out singles. Caulfield drove them both in on a double down the left field line, giving UCLA a 2-0 lead.

Junior second baseman Mikey Perez led off the bottom of the fourth with a single to left, then stole second and narrowly avoided the tag to put himself in scoring position. One error and fielder’s choice later, Caulfield stepped up to the plate again with two men on and did the same thing he did the prior inning – pick up two RBIs, this time on a dribbling single up the middle.

Junior shortstop Matt McLain knocked a single to center to bring Caulfield across home plate, putting the Bruins up 5-0.

Caulfield, who entered Sunday batting .200 with one RBI in six games this season, also hit a single in the seventh and finished 3-for-5.

“It felt good,” Caulfield said. “I hadn’t been playing too much to start the season, and (it’s about) just being ready when my number got called and I’m just glad I did it for my team today, bring a little energy for a big Sunday game against USC – it just felt great.”

The senior’s streak of three straight hits came to an end in the bottom of the eighth, but UCLA still tacked on five insurance runs thanks to RBIs by Kendall and redshirt sophomore first baseman JT Schwartz – who was 3-for-4 with 3 RBIs in his season debut.

The Bruins have now won eight of their last nine outings against the Trojans and will play USC again in a three-game road series March 26-28.

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Sam Connon | Alumnus
Connon joined the Bruin as a freshman in 2017 and contributed until he graduated in 2021. He was the Sports editor for the 2019-2020 academic year, an assistant Sports editor for the 2018-2019 academic year and spent time on the football, men's basketball, women's basketball, baseball, men's soccer, cross country, men's golf and women's golf beats, while also contributing movie reviews for Arts & Entertainment.
Connon joined the Bruin as a freshman in 2017 and contributed until he graduated in 2021. He was the Sports editor for the 2019-2020 academic year, an assistant Sports editor for the 2018-2019 academic year and spent time on the football, men's basketball, women's basketball, baseball, men's soccer, cross country, men's golf and women's golf beats, while also contributing movie reviews for Arts & Entertainment.
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