UCLA Makes It A Clean Sweep Of Washington With 4-2 Win

Was UCLA really going to blow a Sunday lead for the second straight weekend and see their hopes of completing a series sweep go out the window? Yup. But this time around it wasn't a 10-run inning that did them in and once they did give up two runs to allow Washington to tie the game at 2-2, they had an answer. The Bruins came back with two more runs of their own to recapture the lead and pick up a 4-2 win over Washington.

With the Bruin offense not mashing the ball like they did on Saturday, UCLA needed a strong effort from their pitchers and they got just that. Zack Weiss worked 6.2 innings, allowing just two runs on five hits and striking out five to just one walk, but he only got a no decision. David Berg earned the win for his 1.1 innings of relief to improve to 5-2 on the year and Scott Griggs set a UCLA single-season record by picking up his 13th save.

While Griggs provided the power on the mound, Jeff Gelalich provided it at the plate. The junior hit his team-leading ninth home run on the season as part of a two-RBI day to lead the offense. Kevin Kramer did more than his fair share too, going three-for-three with a run scored on a day that saw eight of the nine Bruin starters pick up a hit.

A quick start looked like it would give the Bruins all they needed to win the ballgame. Beau Amaral walked to start the game and Tyler Heineman was hit by a pitch so after a groundout moved each up, Gelalich's groundout was able to score Amaral for an early lead. Gelalich then homered in the third and UCLA was up 2-0, which looked to be plenty for Weiss.

The right-handed looked strong from the start, showing the kind of fastball command he lacked a week ago. He had the Huskies off balance and only once in the first six innings did it look like they might score. A fifth inning leadoff double was followed by a sacrifice bunt, but Weiss induced a grounder to first that the runner couldn't score on before a fly ball ended the frame.

All was going well for Weiss and a couple strikeouts to start the seventh made it look like that frame would be like the previous six, but that's when the Huskies finally got to him. A two-out single put a man on base then Andrew Ely took Weiss deep for a two-run homer that tied the game up at 2-2

With the game all even, UCLA needed their offense to wake up and it did. A single by Pat Valaika put a man on then Kramer added a two-out single of his own to put two men on. That brought up Kevin Williams, who pulled the first pitch he saw through the right side, scoring Valaika from second and giving UCLA the lead again. Amaral added a base hit of his own to score Kramer for a bit of a cushion and the Bruins' had restored their two-run lead.

As is usually the case with Griggs, he made things interesting. After a pair of groundouts started the inning, Griggs surrendered consecutive singles to bring the winning run to the plate, but he induced a simple groundout and UCLA had their sweep.

UCLA now stands at 35-13 on the season and 15-9 in the Pac-12, which is good for third place. Oregon and Arizona each picked up sweeps of their own this weekend so the Bruins remain 2.5 games behind first place Oregon and a game behind second place Arizona.