UCLA Baseball Bats Go Silent as Bruins Lose in 12, 3-1

Through the first five innings at Jackie Robinson Stadium yesterday, the Bruins doubled twice. UCLA couldn’t drive either man in to score.

The Bruins finally broke through in the sixth inning when Sean Bouchard who has carried the team offensively so far this season hit a solo shot to left.

And the bats went back to being silent as UCLA couldn’t muster another hit the rest of the game.

It looked like one run would be enough as six Bruin pitchers combined for eight shutout innings. But, in the top of the ninth, UCLA closer Brian Gadsby gave up to the game-tying run to San Diego before he could get an out.

That didn’t seem to shake John Savage’s confidence in his closer as he left him on the mound as the game went into extra innings.

But, even then, the Bruins couldn’t produce offensively.

Meanwhile, in the top of the 12th, the Toreros did when they scored two more runs on Gadsby to take a 3-1 lead. And, again, in the bottom of the 12th, the Bruins’ bats let them down and they lost a winnable game.

Interestingly, Moises Ceja made his first career start yesterday in place of Jake Bird. There was no indication as to why. It may be that Savage decided to hold Bird back for today’s game against Southern Cal.

While we could still see Bird today, the announced starter is Jon Olsen (0-0, 4.76 ERA) while Southern Cal is scheduled to start sophomore righty Marrick Crouse (1-1, 18.36 ERA). Given that the Bruin bats didn’t get the job done yesterday, if Bird goes instead of Olsen, it may prove to be a wise choice since Bird’s ERA is 0.69.

First pitch is at 3 pm PT. Today’s game will air on Pac-12 Networks National and Los Angeles. John Ramey and Tim Wilhelm will have the call on UCLA’s live streaming audio feed. Follow along with the live stats as well.

This is your UCLA Bruin Baseball versus Southern Cal Trojans open thread.


Go Bruins!