In what has become an all too common theme for UCLA in this 2009 season, errors proved to be the difference in a Bruins loss. Oregon was able to tip UCLA 3-2 thanks to three errors on the Bruins that led to three unearned runs. Gerrit Cole went eight innings for UCLA and despite only four strikeouts, held the Ducks to six hits and no earned runs.
The Bruins had chances to get on the board in both the second and the fourth, but came up empty. A Casey Haerther double and walk by Gabe Cohen put runners on first and second with one out in the second, but Tyler Rahmatulla grounded into an inning ending double play. In the fourth, Cody Decker's single was followed by a single by Haerther, but Cohen left them on base when he popped up to end the inning.
Oregon was first to tally when they got an unearned run in the fourth. Following a leadoff double and fly out on which the baserunner took third, Eddie Murray botched a ground ball that allowed the runner to score and give the Ducks a 1-0 lead.
Two innings later, an error by Murray bit the Bruins again. a single, sacrifice bunt and bunt single put Oregon runners on the corners. A throwing error by Murray though paved the way for the runner to score from third and the UCLA deficit was 2-0.
Only a half inning later though, UCLA cut into that Oregon lead. With one out, Cohen laced a double to left field. After Rahmatulla made an out, Niko Gallego came through with a double of his own that scored Cohen and put the tying run in scoring position. Gallego was left at second base though when Steve Rodriguez struck out to end the inning.
The Bruins had a golden opportunity to tie up the game in the eighth, but they were unable to take advantage. After Murray was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning, Justine Uribe sacrificed him to second. Blair Dunlap was able to beat out an infield single to put runners on the corners with one out and UCLA's two best hitters coming up. It wasn't to be though as both Decker and Haerther swung through third strikes to end the inning.
Oregon was able to extend their lead some in the bottom of the eighth thanks to some more poor UCLA defense. After a hit by pitch put the leadoff man on base, Cole threw the ball away on a sacrifice bunt. That put runners on the corners without an out so a sacrifice fly was enough to score the runner from third and give Oregon a 3-1 lead.
The Bruins gave themselves a chance once more in the ninth when Gallego and pinch-hitter Marc Navarro each drew two out walks. Those walks were followed by a single by Murray that scored Gallego and made it 3-2, but after a hit by pitch that loaded the bases, Blair Dunlap struck out to end the ballgame.
Haerther was the only Bruin with multiple hits on the game, tallying two. Cohen's double was his lone hit on his 1-3 afternoon and it extended his hit streak to 11 games.
The Bruins, now 20-22 overall, and Ducks will take to the field again tomorrow at 11 am PDT with Trevor Bauer getting the start for UCLA and Tyler Anderson taking to the hill for Oregon. As always, you can follow along with the Bruins on GameTracker via the official site. You can also get game updates, Bruins in the pros updates, updates on UCLA commits, thoughts on the program, key information and regional updates on my UCLA baseball twitter.