OMAHA, Neb. ““ It was a long time coming, but with a chance to move on to college baseball’s championship series, UCLA finally got UCLA’d.
The Bruins, boasters of one of the nation’s most dominant array of starting pitchers, ran into an opposing ace in TCU’s Matt Purke that led his Horned Frogs (54-13) to a 6-2 victory.
TCU’s win means that the two teams will play again on Saturday, with the winner advancing to next week’s best-of-three series against either Clemson or South Carolina. Trevor Bauer will start for UCLA.
Purke ““ a freshman left-hander who improved his record to a remarkable 16-0 with the win ““ worked at a tremendously fast pace. He went 6 and 1/3 innings, giving up two earned runs on just three hits, while striking out a pair. For its part, UCLA (50-15) made very little good contact against Purke, hitting a number of easy groundballs right at TCU infielders. He also didn’t appreciate the fact that the Bruin hitters tried their best to slow him down.
“I was going to get them out,” he said. “And they could take their time on the bench.”
TCU got runs in the first, second and fourth to build a 3-0 lead. The Bruins clawed their way back to cut the deficit to one, but that was all they could muster.
On the other side, Bruins starter Rob Rasmussen struggled with his command early and never really found a rhythm. The junior left-hander lasted just four innings, giving up three earned runs on six hits and three walks. He did strike out six before yielding to Garett Claypool out of the bullpen.
“I didn’t throw enough strikes,” Rasmussen said.
It was the first action in almost a month for the senior right-hander, and it showed at times. Claypool gave up a two-run homer to sophomore Taylor Featherston and a solo shot to senior Bryan Holaday that eliminated any hope of a Bruin comeback.
“Just felt like we were swimming upstream,” Savage said.