Baseball sees series win over Washington State, bringing away record to .500

Both teams had issues creating separation all weekend long, but the Bruins used a big fourth inning Sunday afternoon to pull away and secure the series.

No. 25 UCLA baseball (27-15, 14-10 Pac-12) took two out of three in a road series against Washington State (23-19, 10-14), letting the series opener slip away late Friday night before bouncing back with a comeback 7-6 victory Saturday and a runaway 16-7 win Sunday. It was the Bruins’ first series win outside of Los Angeles this season, and they weathered the wet turf in Pullman to improve to .500 on the road.

“We’ve really needed this as a team,” said coach John Savage. “It was essential that we played competitive … and it was really challenging and the guys really stepped up and (won in) a difficult place to play.”

The Bruins strung together an early 3-0 lead Sunday with a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch, sacrifice fly and error, contrasted by the Cougars’ two-RBI double and two-RBI single bottom half of the first. Outside of junior designated hitter Jake Moberg’s RBI ground-rule double to right in the second, UCLA did most of its damage with small ball.

Two walks and a hit-by-pitch loaded the bases for redshirt senior right fielder Jarron Silva in the third, and the pinch-hitter drove in two to put the Bruins up 6-5. That lead got stretched from one to six with a five-spot in the top of the fourth, with sacrifice bunts and infield singles keeping the rally alive and giving UCLA a lead it wouldn’t relinquish for the rest of the day.

“We don’t have guys that are going to hit a lot of homers like we did in 2019,” Silva said. “This year’s team, we like to call each other … a bunch of scrappy guys. That small ball is really what can separate us and put some runs on the board, especially when situations are tough.”

That fourth-inning explosion was sandwiched by two 1-2-3 innings by junior right-hander Jesse Bergin, who left the game with a comfortable lead despite a rocky start. After allowing four runs in the first, Bergin retired 10 of the next 11 Washington State batters he faced before getting chased off the mound in the bottom of the fifth.

Bergin ended his day with seven earned runs in 4.1 frames, but the offense scoring double-digit runs for the first time in three weeks helped mitigate one of his messier performances on the season – even if it did mean longer breaks between innings.

“I just always try to stay loose between innings,” Bergin said. “That (fourth) inning took a little longer, so I just spent more time in the bullpen throwing and keeping warm and loose.”

All of that run support came without junior shortstop Matt McLain, who did not get an at-bat all weekend after fracturing the tip of his right thumb in practice Wednesday.

UCLA missed its All-American in the lineup Friday night, when its only two runs came off the bat of freshman center fielder JonJon Vaughns, who crushed his second home run of the season with two down in the fifth.

The Bruins’ 2-0 lead was short lived, however, since the Cougars got to senior right-hander Zach Pettway in the sixth to tie things up with a two-run shot of their own. Pettway faced two more than the minimum 17 batters through 5.2 innings, so he was able to keep his season ERA comfortably below 4.00 despite the homer by designated hitter Tristan Peterson – his first of two in the series.

“Their offense, yeah, they’re really good,” Silva said. “But a lot of credit also to our pitchers. (The Cougars) did score some runs (this weekend), but I thought (the pitchers) did a great job as well.”

UCLA managed one hit across the last four frames and couldn’t keep up with Washington State down the stretch, as the Cougars put up three in the eighth against senior right-hander Michael Townsend to take a 5-2 lead and win the game.

It was the Bruins’ turn to rally for a victory late Saturday after the game opened with some back-and-forth action highlighted by sophomore designated hitter Josh Hahn’s two RBIs off a first-inning double and third-inning single. But junior right-hander Sean Mullen allowed four earned runs in four innings thanks to a career-high six walks, so after junior left-hander Daniel Colwell and sophomore right-hander Charles Harrison each allowed another run, UCLA wound up down 6-4 heading into the ninth.

Senior right fielder Pat Caulfield drove in Vaughns and junior catcher Noah Cardenas to tie the game 6-6, and it was redshirt senior left fielder Kyle Cuellar who brought the game-winning run across with a bloop single into right.

While Silva finished the weekend tied for the most hits by any Bruin other than redshirt sophomore first baseman JT Schwartz, he wasn’t able to step up to bat during the rally Saturday, but he said that didn’t leave him out of the fun.

“That was a special game,” Silva said. “I think the last two days, we’ve really come together more as a team and started playing more for each other and it’s showed.”

Freshman right-hander Max Rajcic closed things out in the bottom of the ninth to set up a Sunday rubber match, and the ensuing big day out of the offense secured UCLA its second-straight series and fifth win in its last seven games.