:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/45854752/B_oiSRJVAAAp4DR.0.0.jpg)
Sunday afternoon at Dodger Stadium, a crowd of 14, 688 watched as UCLA suffered its third straight loss, this time 8-4 to Southern Cal. The loss meant that the Bruins got swept in the Dodger Stadium College Baseball Classic by Vanderbilt, TCU and then Trogans.
Bruins pitcher Cody Poteet (2-1) suffered his worst outing of the season, giving up four runs on eight hits in 3-2/3 innings for the loss. Southern Cal freshman Mitch Hart improved to 3-0 while also allowing four runs on eight hits over 5-2/3 innings for the win.
The Bruin bats finally got moving again as UCLA racked up 11 hits after going quiet against Vanderbilt and TCU. But, it just wasn't enough as UCLA left six runners on base.
This time, it was the middle relief that let UCLA down. In the top of the 5th, Grant Canning gave up two hits and a walk to load the bases and just$c's Blake Lacey took advantage of that when he singled to drive in two to make the score 6-3.
While that would be all the Trogans needed, UCLA would add a run in the 6th before Southern Cal tacked on two more in the top of the 7th.
Tyler Gilbert pitched 3-1/3 innings in relief to record his first save of the year.
Grant Dyer and David Berg combined to hold Southern Cal scoreless in the eighth and ninth innings for UCLA.
Today, the Bruins head out to Malibu to face the Pepperdine Waves at 3pm.
UCLA will send Griffin Canning (2-1, 3.66 ERA) to the mound today despite having thrown 41 pitches in Sunday's game against Southern Cal while Kiko Garcia (0-1, 6.75 ERA) will get the start for the Waves. He is apparently no relation to the former Baltimore Orioles infielder from the early 80s by the same name. Garcia's last appearance was on Saturday at Washington when he pitched a scoreless seventh inning while giving up two walks, no hits and no runs. Garcia's high ERA would appear to bode well for a Bruin team which, with the exception of this past weekend's games, has been tearing the cover off the ball.
There's no reason to believe that UCLA won't use today's game to get back on track offensively.
The forecast for today's game is mostly sunny with a temperature of 73 degrees. So, it should be a great day for a game. There's no TV today, but, as always, you can listen live for free on UCLABruins.com where John Ramey and Tim Wilhelm will have the call.
This is your UCLA-Pepperdine open thread.
GO BRUINS!