UCLA baseball’s five-game winning streak came to an end Thursday at Arizona.
The Wildcats (15-6, 2-2 Pac-12) used a five-run second inning and a complete game from left-hander JC Cloney to overcome the No. 18 Bruins (11-8, 3-1) by a score of 6-1 in the opening contest of a three-game series.
UCLA had sophomore righty Griffin Canning on the mound, which is generally a good recipe for a win – the Bruins entered Thursday having won 15 of Canning’s 16 collegiate starts.
Canning got off to a strong start, retiring the side in the first inning on just six pitches and entering the bottom of the second with a 1-0 lead thanks to an RBI single from senior shortstop Trent Chatterton.
But the Wildcats jumped on the right-hander in the second, producing six hits and sending ten men to the plate as they took a 5-1 lead. They drove up Canning’s pitch count too, with five of the 10 batters reaching full counts.
Canning settled in, though, and lasted into the seventh inning, when Arizona first baseman Ryan Aguilar pounded a leadoff double and came around to score his team’s sixth run.
Cloney (3-1, 2.68 ERA) took care of the rest, yielding just six hits and one walk over nine frames. A junior transfer who was named the 2014 Western State Conference Pitcher of the Year as a freshman at College of the Canyons, Cloney struck out seven Bruins and induced 14 groundouts.
Canning (3-2, 3.43), who had never allowed six earned runs before, saw his ERA rise nearly a run Thursday.
Sophomore first baseman Sean Bouchard continued to deliver at the plate for UCLA, going 2-4 to post his fourth multi-hit performance in the past five games. Bouchard, who hit .227 before the start of Pac-12 play, is hitting .400 in the first four games of conference action.