UCLA Baseball Sweeps Arizona; Visits Loyola Marymount Tonight

This evening, the UCLA baseball team makes the short trip to the campus of Loyola Marymount for a mid-week game against the Lions at 6 pm PT.

Last Time Out

Before Sunday’s game, I wrote “While I’m inclined to suggest that today will be another slugfest, I have a feeling that just writing means it won’t be.” Sure enough, the final game between UCLA and Arizona turned out to be a pitchers’ duel.

Bruin starter Ryan Garcia pitched 7¹⁄₃ scoreless innings and allowed just one hit and one walk while striking out eight before being relieved by Kyle Mora.

Meanwhile, UCLA was held scoreless until the bottom of the seventh when Michael Toglia led off with a homer to right center that gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead.

After Mora came into the game for Garcia, he gave up a triple to Justin Wylie and an RBI single to Dayton Dooney which tied the game, 1-1.

That was enough for John Savage, who brought in UCLA closer Holden Powell to get the final out of the eighth.

In the bottom half of the inning, Jake Pries led off the inning with a single up the middle. Pries ended up on second after an obstruction call on Arizona first baseman Matthew Dyer after an errant pickoff throw. After Jake Hirabayashi pinch-ran for Pries, Jack Stronach homered off the right field foul pole. That gave UCLA a 3-1 lead and Stronach’s homer ended up being the game-winning hit as Powell threw a scoreless ninth for his first win of the season.

Loyola Marymount Lions

The Lions might be the second best college baseball team in the city of Los Angeles. That’s because, after UCLA defeated them 5-0 on February 19th, LMU crushed Southern Cal, 14-5, on March 5th.

Loyola Marymount is having a reasonably good season so far. The Lions are 15-8 overall and 5-1 in the West Coast Conference.

Yesterday, the Lions topped the Washington State Cougars, 3-2. In fact, LMU has won nine of their last ten games. Their only loss came on Sunday when the Lions lost 5-2 to Pacific.

With tonight’s game being played on the LMU campus, it could be a close one and it’s actually even possible that the Lions could snap the Bruins four-game winning streak unless the Bruin bats have a good night.

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


Go Bruins!!!