UCLA Baseball: Bruins Use the Sac Fly to Beat Stanford; Face UC Irvine Tonight

After taking two of three from then-#2 Stanford over the weekend, the UCLA baseball team returns home tonight for a non-conference game against the UC Irvine Anteaters at 6 pm PT.

Last Time Out

On Sunday, the Bruins won the rubber game of their series against the Stanford Cardinal by the score of 10-7. UCLA’s Ryan Garcia pitched seven innings and gave up five runs, but only two earned runs, on five hits and a walk while striking out 11 for his third win of the season.

In the first inning, Ryan Kreidler reached on an error and, later, scored on a Jake Pries sacrifice fly to give the Bruins a 1-0 lead.

Stanford tied it up in the second when Tim Tawa homered with no one on, but UCLA got the run back right away in the top of the third. Noah Cardenas started the inning off with a single to right center. Garrett Mitchell then walked to move Cardenas to second and Kreidler bunted both Cardenas and Mitchell over to third and second, respectively. Pries’ second sacrifice fly of the game scored Cardenas to give the Bruins a 2-1 lead.

The Cardinal took advantage of a throwing error by Garcia when Will Matthiessen hit a three-run homer to take the lead, 4-1. All three of those runs were unearned.

In the top of the fourth, UCLA got one of those runs back when Michael Toglia doubled to start the inning. He eventually scored on a sacrifice fly by Jake Hirabayashi and it was Stanford 4, UCLA 3 after four.

It stayed that was until the top of the seventh when the Bruins exploded for six runs. After Kevin Kendall struck out to start the inning, both Cardenas and Mitchell singled and Kreidler drove them both in with a double to right center. Chase Strumpf walked and Pries singled to load the bases. UCLA’s fourth sacrifice fly of the game, this one by Jack Stronach, scored Kreidler and Toglia followed with a walk to reload the bases. Matt McLain, then, cleared the bases with a triple scoring Stumpf, Pries and Toglia as the Bruins took a 9-4 lead.

Stanford hit solo homer off Garcia in the bottom half of the inning, but that’s all they got in the seventh and it was 9-5 heading into the eighth.

The Bruins picked up an insurance run in the eighth when Toglia walked with the bases loaded bringing Mitchell in to score.

Kyle Mora relieved Garcia to start the bottom half of the eighth, but, after he gave up a two-run homer, John Savage brought in closer Holden Powell to get the final two outs of the inning as well as to pitch a scoreless ninth and the Bruins returned home winners of two of three against the Cardinal.

UC Irvine Anteaters

The Anteaters are having a good season so far. They are 21-5 overall and 5-1 in the Big West. They’ve also won five of six against the Pac-12. They took two of three from Washington and swept Washington State.

Tonight’s game looks to be a good one with both UCLA starter Jesse Bergin and UCI starter Jordan Bocko sporting 3-0 records with very similar ERAs.

Ultimately, it will come down to whichever team is able to hit the ball better. I think the Bruins will probably take this one, though, mostly because they’re at home in the friendly confines of Jackie Robinson Stadium. If tonight’s game was on the road, I might not be so optimistic.

This is your UCLA vs. UC Irvine baseball game thread.


Go Bruins!!!