The Bruins relied on the strikeout early and often to earn a victory.
No. 1 UCLA baseball (43-8, 20-5 Pac-12) defeated Washington (28-20, 12-13) 8-3 to take the first game of the series Friday night at Jackie Robinson Stadium. The Bruins’ pitchers combined to strike out a season-high 19 batters to kick off their last regular season home series.
Junior right-hander Ryan Garcia made his first 10 outs via the strikeout. Garcia struck out 13 of the 15 batters he retired over five innings – one short of tying his career-high of 14 he set over nine innings of work against Utah on April 26.
“It’s the old Nolan Ryan rule,” said coach John Savage. “It’s not a lot of innings, it’s a lot of pitches and a lot of strikeouts.”
Garcia allowed three runs – one earned – on three hits and three walks and improved his record to 8-0.
The junior said he was frustrated his high pitch count resulted in getting pulled after five innings and 112 pitches.
“The strikeouts are nice, but I would rather go longer in the game,” Garcia said. “Getting cut short five innings is a little frustrating, but I’ll take the performance overall.”
Right-handers sophomore Michael Townsend, redshirt senior Nathan Hadley, junior Kyle Mora and junior Felix Rubi each pitched an inning of scoreless relief. They added one, two, two and one strikeouts, respectively.
The Bruins did their most offensive damage in the second, when sophomore left fielder Garrett Mitchell hit a bases-clearing triple with two outs and the bases loaded. The game was tied 1-1 before he gave UCLA a lead it would not relinquish for the rest of the night.
Mitchell also scored the first run of the game when he came home on an RBI single by junior shortstop Ryan Kreidler in the first.
The sophomore was invited to play this summer for the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team earlier this week. He will join Trevor Bauer, Gerrit Cole, Brandon Crawford and Troy Glaus, among others, as the 18th UCLA player to sport the red, white and blue.
“It’s been a dream of mine to play for Team USA,” Mitchell said. “It makes you realize all the hard work that you’ve been putting in and all the long hours throughout the year for this moment.”
With the Bruins leading 1-0, the Huskies put up their first run in the second when shortstop Ramon Bramasco singled, advanced from first to third on a wild pitch, and crossed home on another wild pitch by Garcia.
Washington cut the lead to 4-3 in the fifth when junior first baseman Michael Toglia made a wide throw to Garcia at first that went into the outfield, allowing two runners to score.
“It was an awkward play,” Garcia said. “I had to turn my back while finding the base. (Toglia) kind of fumbled with it in the beginning, so the timing was off.”
The Bruins got one of those unearned runs back in the bottom of the frame when senior designated hitter Jake Pries hit an RBI double down the left field line to make it a 5-3 UCLA lead.
Mitchell slapped his second triple of the night in the sixth, bringing home freshman catcher Noah Cardenas and scoring later on a sac-fly by Kreidler. It marked the first time in over three years a Bruin notched two triples in a game.
Cardenas produced the Bruins’ eighth run with an RBI single to right in the seventh. The freshman leads the team and is second in the Pac-12 with a .410 batting average.
The Bruins have the chance to win the series tonight at 7 p.m.