This post was updated March 3 at 10:55 p.m. 

LOS ANGELES – Coach John Savage dubbed his team’s recent stretch of the schedule as “hell week” – five games in six days, all against different opponents. 

After rain resulted in the cancelation of Saturday’s contest against San Diego, UCLA had the chance to take “Blue Heaven on Earth” by storm and finish the week 3-1. 

Instead, “hell week” reached its conclusion as the Bruins familiarized themself with “Blue Hell on Earth.”  

Unable to recover from UC Irvine outfielder Caden Kendle’s seventh-inning grand slam, UCLA baseball (5-5) fell 5-2 to UC Irvine (9-0) at Dodger Stadium on Sunday in the Dodger Stadium College Baseball Classic finale. The Bruins went 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position while stranding 10, continuing the team’s early-season situational hitting struggles. 

“I didn’t think we were having the best at-bats today,” said freshman shortstop Roch Cholowsky. “I don’t really think that the pitchers really beat us. I think that we kind of beat ourselves.”

The Bruins’ trip to downtown had them in a hole from the outset. Outfielder Myles Smith launched sophomore right-hander Michael Barnett’s fourth pitch of the game into the right field pavilion, marking the fifth consecutive game in which UCLA fell behind in the first. 

Barnett avoided further damage, stranding a pair of runners before settling in to deliver a five-inning, one-run performance, striking out one. 

“The good thing about baseball is that the opportunity is what’s in the next pitch, and I didn’t let that (the home run) discourage me,” Barnett said. “I didn’t let that trail into my next at-bats, and I just stuck to what I know and went for it.”

UCLA had chances to even things up, but it stranded six runners across the first four frames. They eventually knotted the contest an inning later, as an RBI groundout from junior infielder Duce Gourson plated redshirt junior outfielder AJ Salgado, who led off the inning with a double. 

However, the Bruins’ descent came two frames later. 

Freshman right-hander Luke Rodriguez opened the seventh but was replaced by junior right-hander Nate Leibold after hitting a batter. 

A single and a throwing error by freshman infielder Roman Martin at third base loaded the bases and set the table for Kendle. 

Escaping the outstretched glove of Salgado, Kendle’s longball landed in the aptly named Home Run Seats in left field, spurring a frenzy of Anteaters outside the first-base dugout. 

“The seventh inning, we got to make that play,” Savage said. “Got to make that play on the bunt, two outs, second and third – instead, it’s bases loaded, one out. Then, Kendle hits the ball out of the park.”

UCLA struck back with a run an inning later, but it squandered a chance to tie the game when sophomore outfielder Jarrod Hocking went down swinging with two outs and the bases loaded. 

Junior Cody Schrier, who started at second base rather than shortstop, and junior first baseman Jack Holman both reached base in the bottom of the ninth, bringing the tying run to the plate in the form of Cholowsky and senior outfielder JonJon Vaughns. 

The former beat out a would-be double play ball to keep the game alive, but the latter came up empty in the final at-bat of his first start of the season. 

“Nobody should really … be discouraged. Like I told them after the game, the only reason you should be upset is we lost,” Savage said. “Ultimately, we got to get back on our feet.”