UCLA Drops Finale And Series To Oregon St.

UCLA got off to a sterling start this weekend, defeating Oregon St. 3-2 on Friday night, but it was all downhill from there. The offense went M.I.A. in a 5-0 loss on Saturday that left them with a Sunday rubber match, but once against the Bruin bats were quiet. It took until the sixth inning for UCLA to score, at which point they had gone 15 straight innings without a run, and and by then Oregon St. was already well on their way to a 5-2 win that clinched a big series win for the Beavers.

Oregon St. got to Grant Watson early, singling, getting hit by a pitch and walking to load the bases with just one out. It was an unusually rocky start for Watson, who had been lights out all season, and after a single, the Beavers were on the board. A sacrifice fly followed and Oregon St. had a 2-0 lead before UCLA even had an at-bat.

Watson bounced back with a 1-2-3 second inning, but the Beavers got to him again in the third. Consecutive singles put men on the corners before a fielder's choice scored a run.

The fourth inning wasn't any kinder to Watson as Oregon St. strung together three consecutive on-out singles to plate another run and the Beavers had a 4-0 lead.

All the while, the UCLA offense failed to get anything going. Ben Wetzler shut them down, allowing just one man to reach second in the first five innings. When Brett Urabe finally got the Bruins on the board with a sixth inning solo home run, it still didn't shake Oregon St. UCLA may have cut the Beavers' lead to 4-1, but there was little indication that they would do any more.

Kevin Kramer bunted for a single and took second on an error later in the sixth, but he wouldn't get any further and a scoreless seventh killed any momentum the Bruins may have had.

Up 4-1, Oregon St. didn't let up and in the eighth they added to their lead. A leadoff single paid off for the Beavers after a sacrifice bunt moved him to second then a two-out single off the middle scored him. UCLA answered with a run in the bottom half of the inning, but it was too little offense, far too late as the Beavers picked up a key series win.

The loss drops UCLA to 19-9 on the season and 7-5 in the Pac-12. That leave the Bruins in third place, two games behind Oregon and a game and a half behind Oregon St.