This post was updated May 10 at 10:23 p.m.
UCLA baseball couldn’t find a way to take control Tuesday night, dropping a close one to Pepperdine.
Deadlocked in a 1-1 tie for most of the night, the Waves (23-20, 12-9 West Coast Conference) outlasted the Bruins (23-23, 10-11 Pac-12) winning 4-1.
The Bruins got on the board in the second inning when first baseman Sean Bouchard ripped a triple off the wall in right center – missing a home run by inches. The junior tweaked his right ankle on the way to third, eventually lying collapsed on the third base bag for several minutes before two of his teammates assisted him off the field. Bouchard kept his right foot in the air during the trip to the dugout and was seen in a boot after the game.
“You know he rolled his ankle, it’s an ankle sprain,” said coach John Savage. “I don’t know much more about it, but just got to wait to see the doctors and have them take a look at it.”
This is Bouchard’s second injury scare in UCLA’s last four games. The first baseman nearly broke his wrist last Friday against UC Irvine.
Junior left fielder Brett Stephens ran for Bouchard and came around to score on a single from junior right fielder Kort Peterson to put UCLA ahead 1-0.
“That was definitely weird seeing him get hurt,” Peterson said. “But I just had to get back to it and stay to my approach.”
Freshman Jon Olsen had his best start of the season, making it through three innings without allowing a run – a feat he was unable to accomplish in each of his last three starts.
Olsen ran into trouble in the fourth, though, and Savage pulled the right hander with two on base and one out. Freshman Brian Gadsby let in an inherited runner on a bloop single to tie the game at one before getting out of the jam.
“(Olsen) got to the fourth inning, that was good to see,” Savage said. “I think he’s making strides. He threw his curveball for strikes, that was good to see.”
Freshman Justin Hooper and redshirt freshman Nathan Hadley fired a scoreless fifth and sixth; then redshirt junior Tucker Forbes and sophomore Jake Bird combined for a scoreless seventh to keep the game knotted at one.
Bird stayed on to pitch the eighth, allowing two hits before redshirt junior Hunter Virant would relieve him. Virant only threw one pitch, giving up a safety squeeze that would put the Waves ahead 2-1.
Pepperdine tacked on two more in the ninth, and the Bruin bats stayed silent for the remainder of the evening, finishing with only four hits on the night.
“I think we’re so average that I don’t know what to really say,” Savage said about the team’s offensive performance. “For us to get one run tonight is pretty embarrassing.”
The loss gives UCLA a .500 overall record heading into this weekend’s series against USC.