UCLA Baseball Looks to Bounce Back Against LMU After Losing Series to UC Berkeley

UCLA lost their first series of the year this past weekend when they lost to UC Berkeley, 8-3, on Saturday.

The game didn’t start out well for the Bruins as starter Jack Ralston gave up 2 runs in the bottom of the first to the Golden Bears. But, as Coach Wooden said, “Failure is never fatal.”

The Bruins would get a run back in the fifth when Garrett Mitchell scored on a single by Kevin Kendall.

Then, in the sixth, UCLA would take the lead. Mitchell led off the inning and reached base on a throwing error by Bears’ pitcher Aaron Shortridge. That gave UCLA a runner on third with no outs. John Savage went to his bench and sent Jarron Silva in to pinch hit for Daniel Rosica. Silva delivered with a single which scored Mitchell. He would later score the go-ahead run on a sacrifice fly by Jack Stronach.

But, that was all UCLA could do offensively.

It may have been enough if not for the Bruins’ bad relief pitching. The UCLA bullpen gave up a 6-run 8th inning in one of the much-maligned pen’s worst outings this season.

UCLA could only muster two hits in the top of the ninth before they ran out of outs.

Nathan Hadley (0-1) took the loss for the Bruins while Tanner Dodson earned the win for the Golden Bears.

The two losses this weekend to the Bears resulted in UCLA falling from 15th to 20th in this week’s Baseball America poll.

Tonight, the Bruins head to Westchester to face the Loyola Marymount Lions. The Lions are just 13-14 this season and send freshman righthander CJ Fernandezees (0-1, 4.50 ERA) to the hill to face UCLA sophomore Kyle Mora (1-1, 4.87 ERA).

The Lions have three guys batting .333 or better, but the good news is that, while these guys are seeing the ball well, they don’t go long often. LMU has hit just 11 homers this season as a team.

Sophomore Nick Sogard is their best batter. He’s batting .363 with 3 doubles, a triple, 2 homers and 10 RBIs. Senior outfielder Jamey Smart is one of two guys batting .333 and redshirt senior Niko Pacheco is the other. Smart leads the Lions with 7 doubles and 27 RBIs.

There’s no TV for tonight’s game, but it will be live streamed on the West Coast Conference website. There’s a link in the sidebar above which will let you watch tonight’s game. Of course, Tim Wilhelm will be on the audio call on uclabruins.com.

This is your UCLA Bruins vs. Loyola Marymount Lions baseball open thread.


Go Bruins!!!