On Saturday, Washington's bats came alive as the Huskies defeated the Bruins by a score of 8-1.
The Huskies scored first in the top of the 2nd to jump out to an early 1-0 lead that scored DH Josh Cushing when third baseman Nyles Nygaard singled to right field. But it was a Washington rally in the top of the fourth that really did in UCLA and starter Grant Watson.
Watson loaded the bases to start the fourth before walking in a run. Husky RF Jack Meggs later hit a bases clearly double to make the score 5-0.
Washington added another run in the fifth and two more in the ninth off reliever Matt Trask. UCLA was held scoreless until the bottom of the ninth.
After Christoph Bono struck out to start the ninth, Brett Stevens doubled to right center and scored when Kevin Kramer singled. Luke Persico walked and Washington then brought in Troy Rallings to relieve starter Tyler Davis. Ty Moore grounded out to Rallings for the second out and Chris Keck struck out swinging, leaving Kramer and Persico in scoring position.
Davis (4-1) pitched 8-1/3 innings for Washington to earn his fourth victory of the season while Watson (2-2) suffered the loss.
The biggest bright spot for UCLA had to be Griffin Canning. After 41 pitches in relief on Sunday at Dodger Stadium and 92 pitches as Tuesday's starter against Pepperdine, Canning threw another 45 pitches in yesterday's game over 4 scoreless innings. Clearly, Canning is in the process of becoming an absolute workhorse for the Bruins.
Today's game will see senior Josh Fredendall (2-0, 4.05 ERA) pitching for Washington against Cody Poteet (2-1, 3.06 ERA) for UCLA. On paper at least, Fredendall's ERA looks like something the Bruin bats will be able to take advantage of.
The Bruins need to win today's rubber game to win the series because losing a series at home to one of the weaker teams in the conference will not bode well for the rest of the Bruins' season.
First pitch today is at 2pm. If you can't get to the game, you can listen live for free on UCLABruins.com where John Ramey and Tim Wilhelm will have the call. Sunday's game starts at 1pm. Tomorrow, look for our recap of tonight's game and our preview of game 3. After today, UCLA is off until next weekend's three game series at home against Utah.
Go Bruins!