The UCLA baseball team carried a four-game winning streak going into its game against Cal State Fullerton Tuesday. The team, which had recently revived its hopes of reaching a third straight postseason, had also won five of its last six games.
But costly mistakes throughout a 12-8 loss snapped the winning streak and put those surging playoff aspirations at a standstill. UCLA (29-24, 11-10 Pac-10) committed four errors, which generated five unearned runs, in a hard-fought contest against No. 8 Fullerton (36-17, 15-6 Big West).
“They got us earlier in the season, so we wanted to come down here and obviously win a ball game,” Blair Dunlap said. “We knew it was going to be a battle and they just came out on top.”
Big West-leading Fullerton was 22-7 at home going into the game and had previously beaten UCLA twice this season. The defeat marks the seventh consecutive loss at the hands of the Titans dating back to late February of last year, which includes the two-game sweep at the 2007 Super Regionals.
“They have outplayed us the times that we’ve played them,” coach John Savage said. “They’re obviously good and win a ton of games. We had an opportunity to win the game and didn’t take advantage of it.”
Things began well for the Bruins, who got out to an early lead by tagging Fullerton starter Kevin Rath for a run early in the ball game. A sacrifice fly by Cody Decker in the third inning gave UCLA a 2-0 lead.
The lead was short-lived though, as a pair of errors and two home runs paved the way for Fullerton. Titan catcher Dustin Garneau led off the bottom of the third inning with a home run off Bruin freshman lefty Matt Grace to cut the UCLA lead in half. With two outs in the inning, Alden Carrithers committed a pair of errors on consecutive ground balls, allowing Titan cleanup hitter Jared Clark to capitalize on the opportunity, smacking a three-run home run to left-center field and giving the Titans a 4-2 lead.
“We were a little sloppy today defensively,” Dunlap said. “But we just need to get after it at practice. We need to improve.”
The Bruins responded quickly enough in the top of the fourth. After right fielder Chris Giovinazzo singled, Dunlap doubled to make it 4-3. Carrithers redeemed himself at the plate with a game-tying single to center field that scored Dunlap from second base.
After Fullerton scored another home run, UCLA answered with three runs in the sixth inning to take a 7-5 lead.
“We answered back and responded,” Savage said. “But they did what a good team does; they hit home runs. They put up more zeros than we did and that really was the difference.”
Fullerton responded with three of their own in the same inning to retake the lead and hold onto it for good.
“We were in the ball game up until the seventh inning,” Savage said. “We did not pitch well enough and really couldn’t stop them, and a few errors contributed to that. That part of the game let us down tonight.”