This post was updated March 11 at 11:22 p.m.

Baseball games are typically nine innings long.

But Tuesday’s boxscore will tell you the Bruins and Anteaters only played seven.

And anyone in the 544-person crowd at Jackie Robinson Stadium would have probably told you the game was over in the first inning.

Junior third baseman Roman Martin drove in the two runs his team would need just four Bruin batters into the game, but junior catcher Cashel Dugger added a grand slam just six pitches later. And junior shortstop Roch Cholowsky tacked on a three-run shot in his second plate appearance of the inning.

No. 1 UCLA baseball (14-2, 3-0 Big Ten) recorded its third run-rule victory in its last seven games, defeating UC Irvine (9-8, 1-2 Big West) in seven innings 11-1.

“We just had some really good quality at-bats, and they kept on coming,” said coach John Savage. “They’re using the middle field. We score nine. … He (freshman right-hander Angel Cervantes) sits there for half an hour, goes out and throws six pitches. We come back and get one. That was pretty good baseball.”

After trailing early in all three of their previous midweek matchups, the Bruins flipped the script Tuesday, scoring all but two of their runs in the first inning. UCLA remained dominant from the other side of the ball as well, with its four arms allowing just six total baserunners.

Cervantes made his fourth start and sixth appearance of the year and had what Savage called his best outing as a Bruin yet.

The Lynwood, California, local matched his season high in innings pitched and set another season high in strikeouts, tossing three perfect frames and striking out a pair on just 28 pitches, with his six-pitch frame coming in the top of the second.

“He came out and was the hunter,” Savage said. “We made some adjustments with some of his delivery and his (arm) slots. And I thought he came out and really took that to a really good level of competitiveness.”

Cervantes notably turned down the Pittsburgh Pirates’ nearly $2 million signing bonus after being drafted in the MLB Draft’s second round over the summer. The 18-year-old said he never wavered on joining UCLA baseball after committing as a Warren High School sophomore.

Not even when the Bruins finished 2024 at 19-33.

“I honestly think this is the best decision I’ve ever made,” Cervantes said. “I’m happy with where I’m at and the group of guys that took me in – it’s really helping me in.”

The freshman added that watching former Bruins Gerrit Cole and Trevor Bauer greatly contributed to his desire to attend UCLA. The former chose UCLA over the New York Yankees, who drafted him in the first round out of high school, while Cervantes credited the latter for YouTube videos that helped him develop his slider.

Dugger set his career high in RBIs with his first-inning blast and already has six extra-base hits just 15 games into the season. As a sophomore, Dugger had eight extra base hits in 58 games – a massive improvement from the two doubles he hit in 33 games as a freshman. The everyday catcher’s slugging percentage has jumped 92 points since last season and 196 points since the year prior.

“I’ve been working on just getting bigger and stronger,” Dugger said. “It’s nice to see the results out there from all the hard work you put in, but I still want to get stronger.”

With the Bruins’ regular backup catcher – fellow junior Blake Balsz – still out with injury, Dugger has taken on a heavier workload, playing all but one game this season, but it’s nothing the backstop can’t handle, he said.

And although Balsz is not suited up behind the plate or standing in the box, his impact on the team is widely felt. The junior seems hard to miss – often the loudest on the bench, sitting on a bucket near the dugout entrance so he can be the first to congratulate his teammates after escaping a half inning on defense.

“He’s such a big part of our team,” Dugger said. “He’s the spark of our team, … always there to pick each other up.”

Meanwhile, junior second baseman Phoenix Call – who also seemed to embrace his bench role while injured to begin the season – made his second start in the field Tuesday.

The former 15th-round MLB Draft pick was one of four Bruins with multiple hits – recording a single and a double, as well as scoring two runs.

Though one may argue Call has yet to put it all together at UCLA, Savage said he remains high on the junior’s athleticism and potential. The coach added that Call could play shortstop and has even played the outfield at UCLA – not to mention center field in the Cape Cod League.

While it wasn’t the Anteaters’ best night, Savage and assistant coach Jake Palmer were quick to praise the program that impacted both of them.

“The staff that’s still there is the staff that was there when I was in college,” Palmer said. “One of my close college friends – my college roommate – is their first base coach. … I loved my experience there, it was obviously unbelievable.”

Savage’s first head coaching job was reviving Irvine’s baseball program under then-athletic director Dan Guerrero, who would later hold the same position at UCLA and sign the former.

Palmer played under coach Mike Gillespie – who was USC’s head coach when Savage was the team’s pitching coach – for a single season before playing under current head coach Ben Orloff for three seasons and eventually transferring to UCLA as a graduate student in 2022.

Though Palmer has seen the Bruins and Anteaters face off numerous times before – most notably in last year’s NCAA Los Angeles Regional Final at Jackie Robinson Stadium – this was his first time as an on-field coach, having been promoted to third base coach in September.

“Being able to play those guys,” Palmer said. “It’s always still something I look forward to every year.”