This post was updated Feb. 17 at 10:03 p.m.

The Bruins kept the bats hot and even brought the brooms Sunday at Jackie Robinson Stadium.

UCLA baseball (3-0) defeated Cal Poly (0-3) by a score of 16-0 to complete its third opening weekend sweep in as many years. With sophomores left fielder Dean West and first baseman Mulivai Levu doing the heavy lifting – combining for six hits and eight RBIs – the Bruins trounced the Mustangs by 16 runs for the second consecutive game and finished the series outscoring their foes 37-4.

“We wanted to reestablish our identity as a program,” said coach John Savage. “Just seeing it this weekend, you walk away going, ‘Boy, they’re a different team.'”

Savage has long said pitching and defense are keys to on-field success. And there may have been no better example of the former than Landon Stump on Sunday.

The sophomore right-hander delivered arguably the best performance of his Bruin career, tossing six shutout innings of one-hit ball – an infield single – while striking out five and walking one in his first collegiate win.

Stump’s fastball command was a little shaky early on, Savage said, particularly in the third inning where he issued a four-pitch leadoff walk to Cal Poly left fielder Dante Vachini and ran the count full against first baseman Zach Daudet and second baseman Ryan Fenn. However, Stump induced three straight groundouts to escape the frame unscathed.

 

“I was getting a little low,” Stump said. “I had to kind of get my strength over the rubber and I adjusted my sights a little bit down. That kind of helped.”

Cal Randall made his season debut in the seventh, tossing a shutout inning where the sophomore right-hander conceded a hit but struck out one, while graduate student left-hander Ryan Rissas made his Bruin debut in the eighth, punching out one and walking one in a scoreless frame.

Sophomore right-hander Justin Lee, who was named the No. 55 reliever in the country by D1Baseball’s preseason rankings, struck out two of three batters he faced in his second season appearance, helping complete the Bruins’ first shutout of the year.

“The good thing about last year is that we played a lot of these freshmen,” Savage said. “Lee pitched a lot, Stump pitched a lot, Rodriguez (freshman right-hander Luke Rodriguez) pitched a lot, … we’re going to see the dividend.”

West, the lead-off man in all three games against the Mustangs, proved the table-setter once again Sunday. In the bottom of the fourth, West dialed the launch codes and sent a line-drive two-run homer to right field for his first collegiate long ball. The sophomore left fielder finished the weekend slashing .500/.733/1.000 over 15 plate appearances, driving in four RBIs and scoring a team-leading seven runs.

“We had a really good fall, good winter, kind of just going out here, competing with the guys,” West said. “Everyone’s just out here, helping each other, making each other better.”

Not to be outdone by West, Levu launched his second tape-measure shot to right in as many days – this one a three-run long ball – as part of his second-consecutive multi-hit and multi-RBI day.

The Bruins did their most damage in the sixth, sending 13 to the plate and scoring nine despite not a single extra-base hit. Instead, they drew four walks, knocked five singles, recorded a hit by pitch and scored on a wild pitch.

“That team that came out on Sunday was a pretty hungry team,” Savage said. “You win 16 to nothing on Sunday against a good team, and you only have two games in the pocket– that’s a sign that they’re playing baseball. That’s exciting.”

UCLA will have a chance at continuing its hot streak – on both sides of the ball – against BYU on Tuesday at Jackie Robinson Stadium.

“BYU is going to be good,” Savage said. “You know, they lost two out of three at Fresno. They won last night, so I expect them to be very well coached.”