UCLA Rolls Over Oral Roberts Yet Again To Extend Perfect Start

It's been 31 days since UCLA kicked off their 2010 baseball season. In that span, the Bruins haven't lost and they made sure that streak continued today by pounding Oral Roberts, 9-1, in the final game of their three-game series. After outscoring the Golden Eagles 41-7 for the weekend, the Bruins hold a perfect 16-0 record on the season and remain in a class of two with Arizona St. as the nation's only undefeated teams.

The offense continued to put up big numbers, but the pitching was strong once again. This time, it was Rob Rasmussen who turned in an excellent start. The junior ran his record to 2-0 by limiting Oral Roberts to one run on two hits while striking out eight in his 5.2 innings of work.

Like the team is streaking, Blair Dunlap is too. The senior went 1-3 to extend his hit streak to 11 games and he had a home run, RBI and three runs scored on the game. Justin Uribe was strong yet again, going 3-4 with three RBI in the contest to boost his batting average to .417 on the season.

It took Dunlap all of two pitches to get things going in the first inning for the Bruins by turning on a pitch and smacking it high off the trees beyond the left field fence for his third home run of the year.

The Bruins waited three more innings to get back on the board and they did so with some help from the Golden Eagles. Brett Krill lined a one-out double to center and when Steve Rodriguez hit a ground ball that was booted by the ORU second baseman, Krill came around to score. Niko Gallego was hit by a pitch and then Cody Regis roped a line drive over the center fielder's head for a double scoring one. With a 3-0 advantage, the Bruins loaded the bases on an intentional walk and then added to the lead when Chris Giovinazzo walked to push a run across. Tyler Rahmatulla came up just short of a grand slam to center, but the ball was caught on the warning track for a sacrifice fly. The scoring in the inning came to a close when Uribe singled to score one more for a 6-0 lead.

After his streak of 17 straight batters retired came to an end in the sixth, Rasmussen walked on and allowed a single, bringing an end to his day. Erik Goeddel came in to relieve him and walked the first two batters he faced to force a run in, but that was it and the Bruins took a 6-1 lead to the bottom of the sixth.

In the bottom half of the inning, the Bruins loaded the bases with just one out and Uribe came through with a high chopper over the first baseman's head for a single to right, scoring two runs. Cody Keefer came to the plate and rolled one to first. The Golden Eagles tried to turn two, but Keefer beat out the throw back to first and another run came across to score for a 9-1 UCLA lead.

Goeddel got two outs in the seventh before Matt Grace relieved him to get the final out of the inning. Grace also threw a perfect eighth inning before Dan Klein came in with a scoreless ninth to put a ribbon on the game.

The Bruins will put their perfect record on the line next when they take on UC Santa Barbara on the road this Tuesday. Garett Claypool (1-0, 2.30 ERA) will be on the mound for UCLA as they go for win number 17.