No Joy In Westwood As UCLA Baseball Falls to Maryland 2-1

The Bruin bats that woke up all day yesterday to force tonight's winner-take-all game against Maryland were silenced tonight by Terrapin freshman Taylor Bloom.

Bloom threw six innings while allowing only one run, one hit and one walk to earn the victory for the Terps.

Meanwhile, the Bruins pitched well. Grant Dyer started for the first time since his freshman season and threw four innings giving up one run on three hits and a walk before being relieved by UCLA ace James Kaprielian.

Kap gave up one run on two hits and a walk over two innings of work. Bruin closer David Berg threw two innings of shutout ball.

But, in the end, this game will be remembered by Bruin fans for a controversial play at the plate.

In the top of the third inning, with catcher Darrell Miller, Jr. on third base, Trent Chatterton flew out to center. Miller tagged on the play and, quite literally, ran into Terrapins catcher Kevin Martir who appeared from every angle to be blocking home plate without the ball.

On the replay, it looked like Martir's tag was high and that Miller's foot got in ahead of the tag, but with the home plate umpire positioned behind the catcher, he couldn't have possibly seen whether Martir tagged Miller before his foot got in between Martir's legs. It was the worst call on a night of bad calls for the Bruins.

The reality is that the Maryland combo of Bloom and closer Kevin Mooney pitched well enough to hold UCLA to just three hits all night and you can't expect to win when your team batting average is .096 for the game.

The loss ends the season for the Bruins who had earned their first #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament which doesn't really matter at this point for there is no joy in Westwood as the Mighty Bruins lost.