The Bruins looked like themselves on a Tuesday night – something they haven’t been able to say the past two weeks.
No. 9 UCLA baseball (26-10, 14-4 Pac-12) defeated Cal State Fullerton (19-20, 6-3 Big West) for the second time this season Tuesday night, winning 12-4.
The Bruins dropped their previous two Tuesday games to unranked opponents – two of their three losses in the month of April.
“You could say (this win) was a relief,” said sophomore second baseman Chase Strumpf. “We have kinda scuffled the last two Tuesdays. We haven’t really come out very competitive. But we knew we had to turn it around eventually and we did a good job of getting back on track tonight.”
The Bruins defeated Fullerton 12-2 on February 27. The Titans made the College World Series last year and came into the season ranked No. 17. However, they are ranked 12th in strength of schedule, and are bearing the brunt of a tough slate of opponents.
Redshirt sophomore Jack Ralston made the fifth start of his career Tuesday night, throwing 4 2/3 innings and allowing two runs on three hits. The right-hander earned the loss in the last two midweek games.
Sophomore Ryan Garcia is the usual Tuesday starter, but a facial injury to Saturday starter junior Jon Olsen forced Garcia to cover weekend games. Ralston saw time in the Tuesday slot while Olsen recovered, but entered Tuesday’s contest with a 9.24 ERA overall.
“It’s nice we just have a lot of people stepping up,” Ralston said. “We have a lot of depth (in the pitching staff) so we just (have to) keep grinding.”
Olsen and redshirt sophomore Kyle Molnar both returned from injury against Utah two weeks ago, but setbacks forced them to sit out against USC, moving Garcia to the Sunday spot.
“We need another arm. It’s frustrating,” coach John Savage said. “But the (pitching staff) has done a really good job of overcoming stuff the whole year and to their credit, they’ve battled. You have to keep battling because you don’t know when (Olsen and Molnar) are going to come back or not.”
The Bruins’ batting order remained the same from previous weeks and maintained the same level of production.
Junior center fielder Daniel Amaral scored in the second frame to kick things off for the Bruins. He stole second and was singled home by sophomore third baseman Ryan Kreidler.
UCLA’s sophomores in the middle of the lineup provided a pair of runs a frame later. Second baseman Chase Strumpf doubled home freshman shortstop Kevin Kendall, and first baseman Michael Toglia doubled home Strumpf to make it 3-0.
Strumpf had his fifth multi-hit game in a row, finishing 3-for-5 with three doubles, two runs and an RBI.
“Coach Savage says it best: being stubborn to our approach,” Strumpf said. “Being able to just let a strike go by if it’s not my pitch and still staying with my approach to wait for my pitch.”
Fullerton scored two runs in the fifth inning, forcing Savage to relieve Ralston with sophomore Kyle Mora. However, UCLA answered in the bottom of the inning with four insurance runs.
The Bruins finished the night with 18 hits, seven of which were for an extra base.
UCLA will get a break from conference play this weekend when it faces Cal Poly. The Mustangs have the same record as the Titans and were swept by them April 8. Senior Jake Bird will throw the first pitch for the Bruins on Friday at 6 p.m. in San Luis Obispo.