UCLA Baseball Returns Home to Play Oregon State

The Bruins salvaged Sunday's game against the Ducks, winning 7-6 in 10 innings.

JT Schwartz’s two-run homer in tenth won Sunday’s game against the Ducks for the Bruins. (Photo Credit: Ross Turteltaub/uclabruins.com)

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After dropping two of three games on the road to the Oregon Ducks last weekend, the UCLA baseball team returns home for a weekend series against the Oregon State Beavers starting tonight at 7 pm PT. Tonight’s game, and the whole series, will be broadcast on Pac-12 Networks.

Last Time Out

On Sunday, the Bruins needed 10 innings to finally beat the Ducks, 7-6.

Oregon got on the board first on an RBI single to center by Aaron Zavala, which scored Anthony Hall. But the Bruins got the run back in the top of the second when Noah Cardenas hit a sacrifice fly, scoring Mikey Perez to tie the game, 1-1.

Unfortunately, the Ducks took it right back again in the bottom half of the inning on an RBI single by Gavin Grant which brought Sam Novitske home. But, Bruin starter Jesse Bergin worked out of this inning and UCLA trailed 2-1 after two.

Matt McLain drew a two-out walk in the sixth inning and, while he stole second, it didn’t matter because JT Schwartz homered to right to put the Bruins up, 3-2.

Again, Oregon bounced right back. Nick Nastrini took over for Bergin to start the inning and it was clear he didn’t have his stuff. He walked Gabe Matthews on five pitches and he was done for the day after throwing a wild pitch which let Matthews take second as John Savage turned to Michael Townsend to try to keep a lid on things.

It didn’t work.

Townsend gave up a single to Novitske, a two-run single to Grant, and an RBI single to Tanner Smith and, just like that, the Ducks retook the lead, 5-3.

But UCLA wasn’t done yet.

With two outs in the seventh, Michael Curialle singled up the middle to score Noah Cardenas and cut Oregon’s lead in half. Then, in the top of the eighth, McLain led off the inning with a home run to center to tie the game up, 5-5.

Both teams stranded a runner in the eighth and UCLA left one on in the ninth inning to send the game to extra innings.

Thankfully, the NCAA hasn’t adopted the stupid extra innings rule which MLB did that puts a runner on second to start the tenth inning, meaning that teams have to actually generate runs rather than win a game because the runner on second scored on a single into the outfield.

In the tenth, McLain hit an infield single to start UCLA’s rally. Schwartz followed with a two-run homer to put the Bruins up, 7-5. While that was all UCLA could get across, it would be enough as the Ducks got only one run across in the bottom of the tenth, giving the Bruins a 7-6 win.

Oregon State Beavers

With a 10-5 conference record, the Beavers are tied for second with the Ducks for second in the Pac-12. On paper, it seems that two of the three OSU starters are better than UCLA’s starters, which is interesting because the Bruins have been known for their pitching under John Savage, but Zach Pettway (1-3, 4.00 ERA) has struggled all season and, tonight, he’ll face sophomore Kevin Abel (3-3, 3.08 ERA).

UCLA has the advantage tomorrow with Sean Mullen (7-1, 2.72 ERA) going against Cooper Hjerpe (2-3, 3.12 ERA). Mullen has consistently found a way to pick up wins this season and, while the pitchers have reasonably close ERAs, Hjerpe has had a tougher time getting wins than Mullen has.

Sunday’s game pits Jesse Bergin (4-2, 4.29 ERA) against sophomore Jake Pfennigs (2-0, 3.20 ERA) and it will just depend on which Jesse Bergin shows up.

Of course, pitching’s just one part of the game.

Offensively, these teams are remarkably similar statistically, but two things stand out. UCLA strikes out a lot less than the Beavers but OSU has about 50 more total bases than the Bruins. It should make for an interesting series. I think the Bruins will take two of the three games they play this weekend.

UCLA Baseball (23-13, 10-8)

Opponent: Oregon State Beavers (28-12, 10-5)
Where: Jackie Robinson Stadium, Los Angeles, CA

Media:

Live TV: Pac-12 Networks National, Los Angeles and Oregon
Live Audio: uclabruins.com
Live Stream: Pac-12.com and the Pac-12 Now app

Friday

Game Time: 7:00 pm PT, Friday, April 30, 2021
Live Stats: UCLA StatBroadcast
Probable Pitchers:
UCLA - Zach Pettway, RHP, Sr. (1-3, 4.00 ERA)
OSU - Kevin Abel, RHP, RSo. (3-3, 3.08 ERA)

Saturday

Game Time: 6:00 pm PT, Saturday, May 1, 2021
Live Stats: UCLA StatBroadcast
Probable Pitchers:
UCLA - Sean Mullen, RHP, Jr. (7-1, 2.72 ERA)
OSU - Cooper Hjerpe, LHP, Fr. (2-3, 3.12 ERA)

Sunday

Game Time: 12:00 pm PT, Sunday, May 2, 2021
Live Stats: UCLA StatBroadcast
Probable Pitchers:
UCLA - Jesse Bergin, RHP, Jr. (4-2, 4.29 ERA)
OSU - Jake Pfennigs, RHP, So. (2-0, 3.20 ERA)

Weekend Notes:

UCLA
Oregon State

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


Go Bruins!