The Bruins put their offensive firepower on display this weekend.
No. 1 UCLA baseball (41-8, 19-5 Pac-12) took down Washington State (10-36-1, 2-21-1) by scores of 6-2, 10-0 and 13-10 to earn its first road sweep of the season. The Bruins’ 29 runs and eight home runs in the series were both season highs.
“We really swung the bats well,” said coach John Savage. “Some guys really stepped up and had big weekends. It’s always difficult to sweep a Pac-12 team on the road, and we needed a lot of these runs.”
Sophomore right fielder Garrett Mitchell led off Friday’s opener with his fifth home run of the year. Mitchell finished the series with eight hits and extended his hitting streak to nine games.
After the Cougars responded with a run of their own, the Bruins retook the lead in the top of the second before Washington State tied the game again a half inning later – before a three-run rally in the fourth gave UCLA the lead for good.
With two outs and a man on third, Mitchell tallied his second RBI of the night with a single up the middle. Junior second baseman Chase Strumpf singled to right field to drive in Mitchell, and junior third baseman Ryan Kreidler scored after Cougar right fielder Jared Thurber fumbled the ball.
The Bruins added a run in the fifth to make it 6-2, a lead they would not relinquish the rest of the way.
On the mound, junior right-hander Ryan Garcia allowed just two baserunners after the second inning. He finished with two earned runs allowed in eight innings.
Redshirt junior right-hander Jack Ralston took the mound Saturday and continued where Garcia left off, tossing seven shutout innings and striking out 12. Ralston lowered his ERA to 2.34 and has not allowed a run in his last 19 innings of work.
“I liked my start,” Ralston said. “I’ve been feeling pretty comfortable up there, especially with the guys behind me.”
On offense, the Bruins tallied nine extra-base hits en route to ten runs.
Kreidler kicked off Saturday’s game with his first home run since March 22 and followed it up in the second with another extra-base hit to left center – an RBI double that put UCLA up 4-0.
Junior first baseman Michael Toglia, freshman center fielder Matt McLain and Strumpf all added homers of their own to drive in another five runs for the Bruins. For McLain, it was just his second home run of the season and his first in over two months.
With the chance to earn the series sweep Sunday, UCLA attacked early again.
In the top of the second, Toglia stepped to the plate and hit a solo shot for his 11th home run of the season, tying his total from last year.
The Cougars took their first lead of the series in the bottom of the second against freshman right-hander Jesse Bergin on a fielding error by sophomore shortstop Kevin Kendall and sacrifice bunt from second baseman Garrett Gouldsmith.
Trailing 2-1, the Bruins broke through with another fourth-inning rally. Kendall tied the game with an RBI single, and McLain launched a three-run homer to right-center for his second home run of the series.
“Everybody knows how capable (McLain) is,” Savage said. “It’s not easy for a freshman to come in and play every day. You’ve got to give him a lot of credit that he’s withstood it and had a major impact this weekend.”
Kreidler drove in the fifth run of the inning on a single to left, pushing the score to 6-2.
The Cougars responded with a rally of their own, scoring a combined six runs and batting around against Bergin, freshman right-hander Jack Filby and redshirt senior right-hander Nathan Hadley.
The score remained 8-6 until the top of the seventh, when UCLA rallied for its second five-run inning of the day. Toglia made it 8-7 with an RBI double to left-center, and a wild pitch from left-hander Tyson Guerrero brought the trying run across.
The Bruins took the lead after Toglia came home on a sacrifice fly from junior left fielder Jack Stronach and Mitchell knocked a two-run single to right.
UCLA added a pair of insurance runs late in the game, including McLain’s second home run of the game in the top of the ninth. McLain finished the series with three home runs and six RBIs after going in hitless in his previous 11 at-bats.
“It wasn’t what I was trying to do, but it felt good to come out here and get a few home runs,” McLain said.
The Cougars made one last push in the bottom of the ninth, driving in two runs and putting runners at second and third with no outs against sophomore right-hander Holden Powell. However, Powell managed to get the final three outs to help the Bruins escape with the win.
UCLA next will play at UC Irvine at 6 p.m. Tuesday.