UCLA Baseball Faces #13 Oregon in Eugene After Beating Pepperdine, 5-4

Despite a 4-0 week last week and a six-game winning streak, the Bruins are unranked for the first time all season.

After starting the season dinged up, Zach Pettway had his best outing of the season last Friday, and will take the hill for the Bruins tonight. (Photo Credit: Scott Chandler/uclabruins.com)

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On a six-game winning streak, the UCLA baseball team (22-11, 9-6 Pac-12) is in Eugene this weekend to square off against the #13 Oregon Ducks (22-8, 8-4 Pac-12) in a three game weekend series. This pivotal series will be one of the Bruins’ toughest challenges of the regular season.

Notwithstanding UCLA’s streak, which included a perfect 4-0 record last week, the Bruins dropped out of the polls. Despite getting no love in the polls, UCLA is within one game of first place Oregon State, along with three other teams, in a tightly packed upper echelon of the Pac-12. The Ducks come into the series playing very good baseball, having won six of their last seven games, including a home sweep of Pac-12 leaders Oregon State two weeks ago and a road series win versus Southern Cal last weekend.

Last Time Out

The Bruins battled Pepperdine in Malibu on Tuesday night and managed to keep their mid-week record perfect, edging the Waves 5-4. UCLA is 6-0 so far this season in mid-week games.

The start of the game did not look promising though. After UCLA manufactured a run in the top of the first inning on a hit-by-pitch, single, and a Matt McLain sacrifice fly, UCLA starting pitcher Nick Nastrini walked four and allowed a pair of doubles in the bottom half of the frame, and the Waves plated three runs to take the lead, 3-1.

Nastrini allowed a single and a walk in the second inning, prompting Head Coach John Savage to to bring out the hook. His replacement, junior lefty Daniel Colwell, came on a did a great job, lasting four innings, allowing just one base runner, on a single, and facing the minimum amount of batters, as that single was erased three pitches later on a UCLA double play.

Colwell’s work earned him the win, his second of the season, and allowed the Bruins to get back in the game in the third inning when UCLA scored three runs. With the bases loaded with Bruins, JT Schwartz cut the lead to 3-2 with a sacrifice fly, which also moved the runners over to second and third. Both runners would score on Mikey Perez’s two-run double, giving UCLA a tenuous one-run lead.

That lead would become two runs in the fourth inning, care of a Kyle Cuellar RBI single. Neither team would score again until the bottom of the ninth inning, when a leadoff home run by Pepperdine off of UCLA reliever Max Rajcic cut UCLA’s lead to one run.

Rajcic would not allow another threat, striking out the next two batters and ending the game by inducing a fly out. In doing so, Rajcic earned his second save of the season.

Oregon Ducks

Although they are tied for second in the Pac-12 with Stanford, Oregon is the highest ranked team in the Pac-12 in the national rankings. The Ducks are a solid hitting team with a squad batting average of .278. Oregon has five regular starters hitting over .300, led by sophomore switch-hitter Aaron Zavala, who is batting .413. Also watch out for Kenyon Yovan, who leads the Ducks with nine home runs and 28 RBI to go with a good .313 batting average.

Oregon has also pitched well, with a team ERA of 3.41. Two of the three Duck starting pitchers have ERA’s right around 2.50, while the third is slightly above 3.50.

It looks like junior lefthander Robert Ahlstrom (2-3, 2.57 ERA) will take the hill for the Ducks tonight. Zach Pettway (1-2, 3.72 ERA), who is coming off his best performance of the season last Friday versus Utah, throwing seven shutout innings and striking out eleven, will start for the Bruins.

UCLA Baseball (22-11, 9-6)

Opponent: Oregon Ducks (22-8, 8-4)
Where: PK Park, Eugene, OR

Media:

Live TV: None
Live Audio: None
Live Stream: Pac-12.com and the Pac-12 Now app

Friday

Game Time: 6:00 pm PT, Friday, April 23, 2021
Live Stats: UCLA StatBroadcast
Probable Pitchers:
UCLA - Zach Pettway, RHP, Sr. (1-2, 3.72 ERA)
Oregon - Robert Ahlstrom, LHP, Jr. (2-3, 2.57 ERA)

Saturday

Game Time: 2:00 pm PT, Saturday, April 24, 2021
Live Stats: UCLA StatBroadcast
Probable Pitchers:
UCLA - Sean Mullen, RHP, Jr. (7-1, 2.56 ERA)
Oregon - Cullen Kafka, RHP, Jr. (4-1, 2.44 ERA)

Sunday

Game Time: 12:00 pm PT, Sunday, April 25, 2021
Live Stats: UCLA StatBroadcast
Probable Pitchers:
UCLA - Jesse Bergin, RHP, Jr. (4-2, 4.29 ERA)
Oregon - Brett Walker, RHP, Jr. (4-1, 3.53 ERA)

Weekend Notes:

UCLA
Oregon

This is your UCLA baseball vs. Oregon game one open thread.


Go Bruins!