Stranded Runners Doom UCLA In 4-1 Loss To Northridge

UCLA had 10 hits to Cal St. Northridge's four, but it didn't matter because the Bruins wasted nearly every opportunity they had. They left 11 men on base, missed bunt attempts and were thrown out stealing, dooming the Bruins to a disappointing 4-1 loss to the Matadors.

Kevin Williams had two hits and the Bruins' lone RBI, but even he struck out twice. Eric Filia also had two hits and scored the only run, but that wasn't enough to make up for a three-run CSUN first inning that UCLA could never make up.

Cody Poteet followed up the best start of his young career with the worst, failing to make it out of the first inning. He walked the leadoff man, followed it by allowing a single and then walked the next man to load the bases. A double play scored the first run of the game and while it should have helped ease the pressure on Poteet, it didn't show. He hit the next batter to put men on the corners then the Matadors pulled off a double steal to make it 2-0. After a double scored another run, John Savage gave Poteet the hook, ending a disappointing 0.2 innings, three-run outing.

From that point on, the UCLA pitching staff did its job. James Kaprielian worked 3.1 scoreless frames and Jake Ehret followed with 1.2 hitless innings. Max Schuh struggled, walking the only two men he faced, but Zack Weiss helped rescue him with 2.1 innings of work in which he allowed only one unearned run before David Berg worked a scoreless ninth. In the end, the Bruins' bullpen tossed 8.1 innings of two-hit ball and allowed just one unearned run, but it wasn't enough.

The Bruins put two men on with one out in the first and left them both. In the third, Brian Carroll was thrown out trying to steal and while Williams' singled to score Filia in the fourth to cut the CSUN lead to 3-1, they still left two men on that inning.

The fifth brought more of the same for the Bruins as Justin Hazard walked and Carroll singled to start the frame, but Kevin Kramer's sacrifice bunt wasn't good enough and erased Hazard at third. Eventually, the Bruins did load the bases, but Williams struck out to strand them all.

From there on, UCLA was dead and buried. Northridge added another run in the eighth and the Bruins continued to strand runners all the way through the ninth, when their leadoff single went for naught and their four-game winning streak came to an end.