UCLA Baseball Routs Trojans, 13-0; Heads to #14 Cal State Fullerton Tonight

The Bruins broke out their brooms on Saturday night when they defeated Southern Cal by a score of 13-0. Apparently, they scored a touchdown and two field goals.

Seriously, the reality of the situation was that the game was over almost as quickly as it began. Brett Stephens walked on four pitches to start the game. He then stole second and advanced to third on a throwing error by Trojan catcher Blake Sabol. After Daniel Amaral was hit by a pitch, Sean Bouchard made the first out of the game with a pop out to right. A wild pitch by Marrick Crouse allowed Stephens to score. That would, ultimately, prove to be enough even though the Bruins would go on to score twelve more runs in the rout of Southern Cal.

Michael Toglia doubled down the line to right to score Amaral as the Bruins took a 2-0 lead after just half an inning.

UCLA added four more runs in the second inning. Jack Stronach singled to start the inning and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Ryan Kriedler and to third when Gavin Johns grounded out to second. After Stephens walked again, Stronach stole home to give the Bruins a 3-run lead. That play left Stephens on third with two outs.

Stephens would score again when Amaral reached on a throwing error by Tyler Urbach. After Bouchard walked, Toglia drove in two more runs with his second double of the game and the Bruins led 6-0.

UCLA added another run in the third to make it 7-0.

The Bruins rallied again in the sixth inning when they scored 5 more runs including three on Michael Toglia’s sixth home run of the season. All told, Toglia finished the day with a career-high six runs batted in.

UCLA added a final run in the top of the eighth and the final score was UCLA 13, Southern Cal 0.

Jon Olsen (4-1, 3.34 ERA) threw five shutout innings for the win and allowed just three hits and two walks while striking out seven. The Bruin bullpen was also strong, allowing just two hits and two walks over four innings. Ryan Garcia, Matt Walker, Brian Gadsby, and Kyle Mora each threw an inning a piece in relief. Marrick Crouse took the loss for the Trojans.

Tonight, UCLA heads to the OC to play the backend of a home-and-home non-conference series with Cal State Fullerton. Sophomore left-hander Justin Hooper (1-0, 4.17 ERA) will be on the hill for the Bruins while Maxwell Gibbs (1-3, 9.82 ERA) is scheduled to start for the Titans. First pitch is at 6 pm.


Go Bruins!!!