Baseball drops 2 games but avoids series sweep against Washington
Matt McLain (left) went 4-for-12 with two home runs in No. 10 UCLA baseball’s weekend series loss to Washington. The junior shortstop is now tied for the team lead in dingers with four. (Antonio Martinez/Daily Bruin)
Baseball
Washington | 8 |
No. 10 UCLA | 6 |
Washington | 7 |
No. 10 UCLA | 6 |
Washington | 2 |
No. 10 UCLA | 13 |
By Taiyo Keilin
April 4, 2021 3:46 p.m.
This post was updated April 4 at 10:15 p.m.
The Bruins won the finale for the fourth time in the past five series – except Saturday’s win did not secure a series win.
No. 10 UCLA baseball (16-9, 5-4 Pac-12) dropped its Thursday and Friday games 8-6 and 7-6, respectively, at the hands of Washington (10-14, 2-7). The Bruins bashed their way to a 13-2 win in the Saturday matinee to avoid suffering their first home sweep in nearly seven years.
“I think it’s a good learning weekend for us (after) not getting it done Thursday and Friday and then (Saturday) is a big game,” said coach John Savage. “You’re 4-5 and you’ve played two home series, that’s not really in the position you want to be. So 5-4 is a big deal in this league and salvaging the weekend.”
After getting swept in their first two Pac-12 series, it was the Huskies who opened the scoring in game three with the opportunity to take all three games. A leadoff home run by designated hitter Michael Brown in the top of the third gave Washington the early lead, but UCLA bounced right back with a four-spot in the home half.
Redshirt junior center fielder Kevin Kendall led off the frame with a double – one of his four hits Saturday and seven in the series – and junior shortstop Matt McLain followed it up with a two-run blast to straightaway center, launching the 1-1 offering off the batter’s eye for his third long ball of the season.
McLain said he has been working with hitting coach Bryant Ward to tweak his stance and approach at the plate to better play to his strengths.
“I was just slightly off,” McLain said. “I moved up on the plate a little bit – I was a little far from the plate – but you know, just trying to hit the ball to the middle of the field, hard. That’s my strong thing as a hitter so I’m just trying to get back to that and continue to do it.”
Four batters later, junior second baseman Mikey Perez hit a two-run dinger of his own, extending the Bruin lead to three.
In the following frame, McLain went to the opposite field for his second two-run homer of the game. His fourth home run of the season tied him with Perez for the team lead through 25 games.
Sophomore designated hitter Josh Hahn got in on the two-run home-run party with a moonshot over the 370-foot sign in right center field for the Bruins’ fourth two-run shot in three innings. Junior catcher Noah Cardenas then padded the lead in the bottom of the eighth with a two-run blast – UCLA’s fifth of the day – and redshirt sophomore first baseman JT Schwartz went back-to-back with him to conclude the Bruins’ afternoon scoring.
Junior right-hander Sean Mullen – making his first start after seven consecutive bullpen appearances – tossed 5.2 innings, allowing a couple of runs on four hits to earn his fifth win of the season.
“(Mullen’s) been ready to pitch whatever role he’s in,” Cardenas said. “It’s been really fun to see. … I think Sean has just been the poster child of whenever, wherever – he’s just going to be ready to go.”
Thursday night was not as kind to UCLA, as Washington jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first and never looked back. Trailing 7-1 entering the bottom of the eighth, the Bruins began to mount a comeback, plating five runs – two via bases-loaded walks – before an insurance run in the top of the ninth secured the Huskies’ series-opening victory.
Senior right-hander Zach Pettway took the loss with six innings of five-run ball, surpassing the 100-pitch mark for the first time this season in the losing effort. Savage said despite his ace not having his best stuff, he still likes his odds with the ball in his hand.
“Pettway wasn’t as sharp as he was against USC,” Savage said. “But the guy’s given up three earned runs or less in nine straight outings up until this past Thursday so we’ll take our chances with Pettway.”
In the middle game of the series, the Huskies again got on the board first with a solo run in the top of the fourth. The Bruins came right back with a five-spot in the bottom half of the fifth, highlighted by Cardenas’ first career grand slam.
“It feels great, honestly,” Cardenas said. “You just see other guys being successful and it just feels like we’re all passing the bat to one another and you just know something good’s going to happen. That’s when we’re at our strength and that’s something we can do with this team every game.”
Washington responded with a crooked number of its own, plating six runs via a pair of errors, walks and extra-base hits. UCLA needed four pitchers to escape the top of the sixth inning, but its lead was gone and never came back.
The Bruins scored one in the bottom of the ninth to make it a one-run game, but with runners on the corners, Cardenas and Schwartz both struck out and the game ended with the tying run only 90 feet away.
“We had our opportunities – (Friday) night certainly was a heartbreaker,” Savage said. “We were kind of in position to potentially win that game and the strikeout with Cardenas – that ball was clearly down – that was a good at-bat that was taken from him. And then our best hitter is up in that game and he strikes out. So, you know, you’d sign up for that any day of the week.”
UCLA is off midweek but will return to the diamond when it heads to the South Bay to take on Stanford in its first Pac-12 series outside of Los Angeles.
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