The Bruins didn’t have their ace on Friday.
Or maybe they did.
With regular Friday starting pitcher Grant Dyer sidelined by an oblique strain, sophomore Griffin Canning stepped up and pitched a gem, leading No. 21 UCLA baseball (4-5) to a 2-1 win over No. 20 Mississippi State (7-3).
Canning threw 8 2/3 innings, striking out a career-high 12 batters and holding the Bulldogs scoreless until the ninth inning. He finished with one run allowed on five hits and two walks, throwing 135 pitches.
Coach John Savage stressed the importance of looking at pitches per inning rather than total pitch count when explaining why he sent Canning out for the ninth, pointing out that the sophomore did not throw more than 20 pitches in any one inning.
“I just got in a good rhythm,” Canning said. “I had all of my pitches working, throwing everything for strikes. Even when they did square balls up, they were finding our guys in the field.”
Canning featured a four-pitch mix, using his fastball often but also utilizing his change-up, curveball and slider, said freshman catcher Jake Hirabayashi.
But Canning couldn’t get out of the ninth, walking one and giving up an RBI double. Savage pulled Canning in favor of redshirt junior Tucker Forbes, who hit the only two batters he faced to load the bases. Savage then turned to freshman closer Brian Gadsby, who struck out Bulldog shortstop Luke Alexander on three pitches to end the game.
“I thought it was fun,” Gadsby said. “Everyone was thinking, ‘Oh my god, base hit and we’re losing. You can’t walk him, tie game.’ I just went in there thinking, ‘I gotta go in there and just throw strikes.'”
The Bruins didn’t have an easy time scoring runs, either. UCLA scratched one run across in the second inning and another in the fifth against Mississippi State ace Dakota Hudson, who worked with a mid-90s fastball and a cutter that Savage called an above-average, major-league pitch.
Savage said that seeing impressive arms early in the season, especially against UNC, helped the team deal with such a hard-throwing pitcher.
“I don’t want to say 95 doesn’t look hard,” Savage said. “Of course it does, it’s heavy velocity. I think the more you see it … our eyes are getting a little bit better.”
The Bruins scored their first run in the second inning. Redshirt senior center fielder Christoph Bono hit a single and made it to third on a passed ball and a wild pitch before scoring on a safety squeeze by senior shortstop Trent Chatterton.
Junior first baseman Luke Persico drove in UCLA’s second run in the fifth with a two-out double into left center to score junior left fielder Brett Stephens from second.
The Bruins will face Oklahoma righty Alec Hansen on Saturday afternoon in their second game of this weekend’s Dodger Stadium Baseball Classic. As of Friday night, Savage had not yet chosen a starting pitcher.