Losses are inevitable in a 54-game regular season.

What matters is how a team responds to them.

After losing in 14 innings to San Diego on Sunday, UCLA baseball (26-6, 10-2 Big Ten) needed just seven innings to run-rule Long Beach State (12-18, 6-9 Big West) 12-1 at Jackie Robinson Stadium on Tuesday night. The Bruins took an early lead against their local rivals and cruised to their fourth run-rule victory of the season.

“We got back to who we are,” said coach John Savage. “We bounced back, and we got back to our fundamentals and our foundation.”

After entering the game slashing .233/.301/.301, junior right fielder Jarrod Hocking broke UCLA’s 12-inning scoreless streak with a 396-foot two-run blast to left-center field – his second home run of the year.

“It was nice to get us on the board there,” Hocking said. “Our offense this year has just been really resilient. So even at times when we haven’t scored in 12 innings, it still feels like we’re doing really good and we’re going to break through eventually.”

The two runs proved to be enough for the Bruin pitching staff, which only allowed two hits in the contest.

Redshirt junior left-hander Ian May started the game for UCLA, tossing three perfect innings and striking out four Long Beach hitters before handing the ball off to the bullpen.

“May set the tone pretty well,” Savage said. “May is starting to get comfortable and is kind of being the guy that we thought he was going to be when we recruited him. He’s thrown the ball really well over the last three or four weeks.”

Since losing his spot in the weekend rotation, May has posted a 2.18 ERA and 0.68 WHIP across nine appearances and 20.2 innings of work.

The bullpen continued to dominate the Dirtbag hitters following May’s exit, as five relievers combined for four innings of two-hit ball, though one of those hits was shortstop Armando Briseno’s solo home run off redshirt junior right-hander Josh Alger.

“Confidence is high,” May said. “Close game on Sunday. So, as a staff, we kind of built off that. We knew that we threw well, so we just kind of kept that same mentality tonight.”

To May’s point, UCLA relievers have posted a 2.70 ERA since Friday.

Freshman right-hander CJ Bott – pitching in consecutive games for just the third time in his collegiate career – rebounded from allowing the game-winning solo shot Sunday with a scoreless fifth inning Tuesday.

The Bruin offense continued to surge after Hocking’s long ball, with every Bruin starter recording at least one hit for the second time this season and the entire team combining for only one strikeout.

Sophomore third baseman Roman Martin, redshirt senior center fielder AJ Salgado and sophomore designated hitter Blake Balsz smacked three-straight RBI doubles in UCLA’s four-run third.

Martin’s 10th double of the season tied him with sophomore shortstop Roch Cholowsky for the team lead – and is his third double in four games. Salgado’s knock was his seventh extra base hit in eight games. And Balsz’s 2-for-2 night with two walks brought him above the .300 mark in batting average and to the .500 mark in OBP.

Ineligibility Updates

Cameron Kim is academically ineligible, Savage said. The sophomore infielder has not appeared for the Bruins since March 30 and joins junior right-hander Cody Delvecchio and sophomore right-hander Luke Rodriguez on UCLA’s list of ineligible players.

Kim had the walk-off RBI single in UCLA’s comeback victory over Loyola Marymount on March 25 and is slashing .286/.345/.306 across 49 plate appearances this season.