In a back-and-forth series, UCLA baseball fell to the Long Beach State Dirtbagson Saturdayand Sunday, once at the Jackie Robinson stadium and once at Blair Field in Long Beach, losing the series 2-1.
“Our biggest issue was being committed to the process and doing our jobs as a hitters and runners,” said freshman designated hitter Kort Peterson.
It was a battle of the pitchers on Friday as both teams held on to 10 scoreless innings, while failing to put a run on the board going into the 11th inning.
At the top of the 11th, Peterson was walked on a hit-by-pitch to lead off. He then stole second base, advanced to third on a passed ball and finally scored the lone run on a throwing error by the Long Beach catcher.
Sophomore starting pitcher James Kaprielian earned a no-decision despite pitching nine scoreless innings, before redshirt freshman pitcher Nick Kern came in for the relief.
“Kaprelian had a terrific game on Friday night,” said coach John Savage. “Our bullpen pitched well, they did their jobs.”
The Dirtbags came back in full force on Saturday, keeping the Bruins from scoring all afternoon. Long Beach State recorded 11 hits, a significant advantage over the three hits UCLA managed.
“We came out and just rolled through the motions, instead of mentally preparing,” Peterson said.
The No. 21 Bruins were laden with errors, as junior starting pitcher Grant Watson made a fielding error to load the bases for the Dirtbags early in the game, giving them a two-run lead in the top of the first inning.
“We had trouble stringing our bats together,” said junior catcher Shane Zeile. “And now we just have to come together as a team and focus on what we were doing earlier.”
The Bruins failed to execute on many opportunities, having runners in scoring position many times but falling short of producing runs for the team.
“This is the type of game that, the more efficient you are, the more things go your way,” Savage said regarding the errors UCLA made in the final days of the series. “And the last two days we didn’t take care of the baseball the way we know how.”
On Sunday, both teams butted heads, not letting up until the end.
The Dirtbags scored two runs in the first inning to kick off the game. However, the Bruins responded with five runs in the second inning to gain a 5-2 lead early on.
Later that inning, Long Beach State answered with four more runs, giving the Dirtbags a one-run lead.
UCLA failed to catch up as Long Beach went on to score two more, making it an 8-5 score to end the game.
“It doesn’t really matter who you’re playing,” Savage said. “It’s more about our team, and we didn’t execute in a lot of different places and ended up losing both games.”