He may be a freshman who skipped his senior year of high school, but when Trevor Bauer toes the rubber he's nothing but filthy. Today at Jackie Robinson Stadium Bauer was just that as he threw 5.1 scoreless innings of relief to pick up the victory in the 8-6 UCLA win. The win today gave the Bruins the series win over Arizona, their third consecutive series win and their seventh win in the past 10 games.
Charles Brewer started for the Bruins and looked strong in the first inning, allowing only one batter to reach on a hit by pitch. In the bottom half of the inning the Bruins got off to a quick start. Blair Dunlap started the inning with a double to left and the next two batters walked to load the bases. Cody Decker then drew a walk to bring home a run and with Chris Amezquita at the plate Arizona started Bryce Bandilla balked, bringing hom a second run. Amezquita grounded out shortstop, which brought another run home and after one inning the Bruins led 3-0.
Arizona evened the game in the second with one swing of the bat. A single and error put two runners on base then Arizona's Chris Childs cleared the left field fence to plate three and even the game.
The Wildcats took the lead in the next inning when they scored three more. The inning began with a leadoff single and following an out Dillon Baird hit his second homer in as many games to make it a 5-3 ballgame. After recording the second out of the inning, UCLA started Charles Brewer allowed a single and double that brought home another run and his day was over. After 2.2 innings in which he allowed six runs, three earned Bauer who got the final out of the third.
The Bruins couldn't muster much in the bottom of the third, but their bats came alive in the fourth. Amezquita was hit by a pitch and took second on a throwing error then scored on a double by Gabe Cohen. Chris Giovinazzo followed that up with a bunt single that put runners on the corners. The Bruins put down yet another bunt, this time by Gino Aielli and Cohen come home to score while putting runners on first and second. A sacrifice bunt moved the runners to second and third then Dunlap grounded to short to bring one home. In total, UCLA scored three in the inning and evened the game at sixes.
UCLA's offense didn't take any time off as they knocked around the Arizona pitching again in the fifth. With one out, Decker doubled and then Amezquita tripled to give the Bruins a 7-6 lead. After that, Cohen hit his second double of the game, scoring Amezquita and putting the Bruins up 8-6.
That would be all the UCLA bullpen needed. Bauer continued to deal through the eighth inning. Bauer ran into the trouble when he went out for the ninth inning, allowing two batters to reach base before Brooks game in for him. Bauer struck out four, walked one and allowed only four hits in his 5.1 innings before turning it over Brooks who sat down the first three Wildcats and ended the game. It was Brooks' third save of the year and second of the weekend. Bauer picked up the win, his second of the week.
Cohen led the Bruins at the plate with a 2-4 effort that included two doubles, two RBI and a run. Dunlap also had two knocks to go along with his run and RBI, while Amezquita was 1-3 with a pair of RBI and runs.
UCLA is now 10-14 overall and 4-2 in conference play, which is good for a second place tie, one game behind conference leaders Arizona St. The Bruins will next take to the field on Wednesday when Loyola Marymount visits Jackie Robinson Stadium. The Lions are a good up and coming team under first year head coach Jason Gill who lost 10 straight, but have since won eight straight, including a four game sweep of defending national champions Fresno St. First pitch is at 6 pm PDT.
Pac 10 Standings
1) Arizona St...........5-1
2) UCLA..................4-2
Oregon St........... 2-1
Washington St.....2-1
5) California............3-3
Stanford..............3-3
7) Oregon...............1-2
Washington........1-2
9) Southern Cal......2-4
10)Arizona..............1-5