UCLA baseball secures season’s 2nd Pac-12 series win with victory over USC

The Bruins were one strike away from sweeping their crosstown rivals.

But in the bottom of the ninth inning in the series opener, the Trojans rallied to steal the first game.

No. 10 UCLA baseball (15-7, 4-2 Pac-12) took two of three games from USC (10-9, 4-2) at Dedeaux Field over the weekend, never trailing in any of the games save the final play Friday night.

“We’re starting to play the type of baseball that we’re used to and the type of baseball we want to play,” said coach John Savage. “Tough loss on Friday, and the guys responded. … Whenever you win two games on the road in this league, you’ll take it – especially after a really difficult loss of Friday.”

Senior right-hander Zach Pettway got the ball in the opener and gave the Bruins a chance to win, tossing an efficient seven innings of one-run ball. He used only 75 pitches and struck out three while allowing four baserunners.

UCLA used its ace’s longest start of the year to establish a lead by the time he was removed by Savage. The score was 1-1 until the top of the fifth inning when redshirt sophomore first baseman JT Schwartz singled home junior catcher Noah Cardenas, giving the Bruins their second advantage of the night.

In the seventh, RBIs by Schwartz and sophomore right fielder Michael Curialle extended the lead to three, where it stood until the home half of the ninth.

Junior right-hander Sean Mullen got the last two outs of the eighth and was on for the five-out save. The first two Trojans reached base – the second via one of the four walks Mullen issued.

Two outs and a walk later, Mullen found himself with no place to put Tyler Pritchard. He walked the shortstop, cutting the Trojan deficit to two. Right fielder Jamal O’Guinn stepped up and slapped a ground ball into left field, scoring a pair and evening the score at four runs apiece.

Senior right-hander Michael Townsend was called upon to record the final out and got center fielder Rhylan Thomas to bounce a ball to shortstop, but junior Matt McLain’s throw took Schwartz off the bag, giving USC the 5-4 walk-off win.

“It was one of those nights where we didn’t make enough pitches, clearly in the ninth inning,” Savage said. “They had some really nice at-bats, you got to give them a little credit. They had some hard-fought at-bats – they were down to their last strike a couple times. It was just a combination of them having good at-bats and Sean being a little off.”

UCLA jumped out on top in game two as well, thanks to a two-out, two-run triple off the bat of sophomore designated hitter Josh Hahn in the top half of the fourth. Junior right-hander Jesse Bergin gave the run right back in the bottom of the inning, however, but it was the Bruins’ turn to respond when redshirt junior center fielder Kevin Kendall singled in a run to regain the two-run lead.

For the fourth consecutive half-inning, a run was scored as a bases-loaded walk to O’Guinn ended Bergin’s outing prematurely. Sophomore southpaw Jake Saum came in and got the final two outs in the fifth as part of his 2.1 scoreless innings of relief en route to his second win of the season.

Hahn and Kendall each added another run batted in in the eighth and ninth innings, respectively, rounding out a 6-3 victory for the blue and gold.

“You never really get used to a loss like that but you do have to realize that you do have to bounce back and you have to have a lot of resiliency,” Savage said. “The guys clearly proved that this weekend and they took a blow and responded and came back.”

As has been the case in every weekend set this year, the Bruins had the series on the line in the finale. And like they did Friday and Saturday, they put the first runs on the board.

After a leadoff walk to Schwartz in the top of the second, senior designated hitter Pat Caulfield hit a two-run home run to left for his first blast of the season. He added a sacrifice fly in the fourth inning to bring his season RBI total to eight, with seven of those runs being driven in against the Trojans.

“I couldn’t tell you that there’s anything special that goes along with playing USC,” Caulfield said. “I think in those games, I’ve just had really good approaches and good mindsets going into it and it’s just worked out in my favor. Obviously, the numbers say that I’m really good versus USC but honestly, I think I’m just going into the games with really good mindsets.”

The scoring didn’t stop there for UCLA, and it sent 10 men to the plate in the fifth and plated five of them to stretch the score to 9-1.

A two-out rally an inning later saw the Bruins tack on three more, and freshman center fielder and defensive back for UCLA football JonJon Vaughns’ first career hit was a long one as the two-sport athlete homered in the top of the ninth to bring the score to its final tally, 13-1.

Mullen struck out the side in order in the bottom of the ninth – bouncing back from his Friday outing – to secure sophomore right-hander Jared Karros’ second win of the campaign.

“It was mostly just knowing that we had to regroup and get back to who we are and come out and just be ourselves the next day, on Saturday,” Schwartz said about the loss Friday night. “We were able to get that win and come out and win the series.”

UCLA is back in action Tuesday, welcoming Pepperdine to Jackie Robinson Stadium for the second time this season with the chance to improve to 5-0 in 2021 midweek play.