Baseball drops 2 of 3 games in Oregon series, goes to 10th inning twice

The Bruins avoided their first series sweep since 2018 but picked up their fifth series loss of the season in the process.

UCLA baseball (23-13, 10-8 Pac-12) fell two games to one to No. 13 Oregon (24-9, 10-5) over the weekend at PK Park, good for its fifth series loss this season. Despite bringing a six-game winning streak to Eugene, in which the Bruins scored 65 runs, the Ducks limited the visitors to 12 runs throughout the series.

In the Sunday game, which provided free baseball, two Bruin runs in the top of the 10th inning gave them the win.

“We lost two really hard-fought games,” said coach John Savage. “We battled today. We outlasted them today, and it was a really good win. This conference is really good this year. It has a lot of depth, and we came back and we persevered and we ended up winning in (Sunday’s) game.”

The Bruins struck first in the Friday contest, scoring on a sacrifice fly in the third to take a 1-0 lead they would sustain for two innings. The Ducks saw their second and third hits of the contest on a pair of doubles in the sixth off the bats of third baseman Sam Novitske and second baseman Gavin Grant to tie up the game.

Carrying the momentum of the previous frame, Oregon started off the seventh with leadoff hits to take a 2-1 lead. The Ducks then loaded the bases and brought two home on a single, sending senior right-hander Adrian Chaidez to the mound in relief of senior right-hander Zach Pettway.

Loading the bases for the second time in the seventh inning, the Ducks tacked on another run on a fielding error by redshirt sophomore first baseman JT Schwartz, good for four runs and a 5-1 lead.

“Oregon has a good team, one of the better teams we’ve played all season,” Savage said. “Pettway threw the ball really well on Friday but had that one big inning that beat us.”

UCLA started off the top of the ninth with three consecutive singles, driving in one to make the score 5-2. A fielder’s choice brought another run home, but the Bruins’ rally came to an end on a ground out to hand the Ducks the first victory of the series.

Similar to the opening matchup, UCLA scored first in the Saturday contest with an RBI ground-rule double from sophomore designated hitter Josh Hahn followed by a single from sophomore right fielder Michael Curialle to bring Hahn home and put the Bruins up 2-0 in the top of the second.

The Ducks responded in the bottom of the third, plating up a pair of their own on a sacrifice fly and a single.

Neither team managed to take a lead through the end of nine innings, sending the contest to the 10th, in which freshman right-hander Max Rajcic returned for his second inning of work against Oregon. Designated hitter Kenyon Yovan led off the frame with a single, and Bryce Boettcher, pinch running for Yovan, advanced to third on a throwing error and a fielder’s choice. Novitske singled him home to earn a walk-off series victory for the Ducks.

“I think they have a pretty deep lineup. They have a good team,” Schwartz said. “There’s a reason why they’ve been playing well so far this year. I think they just have a lot of good pieces and play well together. We know we could have played better the first two games, but they have a good team.”

Unlike the first two games, Oregon took an early lead in the Sunday matinee with an RBI single in the bottom of the first inning. The Bruins tied up the score on a sacrifice fly in the second, but the Ducks answered with another RBI single to earn a lead they would hold for four innings.

UCLA tallied one hit in the first five innings but with two outs and a man on in the sixth, Schwartz sent a ball over the right field fence for a two-run home run to give his team the 3-2 lead.

The Ducks put up a three-spot in the bottom of the frame, and the Bruins added a run in the seventh and eighth. All tied up heading into the 10th for the second game in a row, it was again Schwartz who got the big hit for the Bruins, launching a two-run shot to left-center to give them the lead.

Schwartz, who had recorded a single and a run in the two games prior, ended up driving in more than half of the Bruins’ runs in the finale.

“It’s always a team effort, but I feel like I was kind of disappointed with how I played the last couple days, so it was good to kind of turn it around today,” Schwartz said.

Rajcic, as he did Saturday, tossed the ninth and 10th frames, allowing one run in the 10th but earning his first win of his collegiate career after picking up his first loss in the prior contest.

“It wasn’t the result we wanted this weekend,” Savage said. “If you look at the standings and what’s going on in the league, this could turn out to be a really big win.”