With his team trailing by a run with two outs in the ninth, junior third baseman Jermaine Curtis stepped up to the plate.
Junior center fielder Tim Murphy, who led off the inning with a single, stood at third representing the tying run.
Curtis slapped a sharp line drive to center field, but the ball sailed right into center fielder Josh Fellhauer’s glove. The catch ended the game and the Bruins’ season ““ a season that began with great expectations.
Though this season differed from the last in many ways, each had the same result. Like a year ago at Goodwin Field, the No. 2 UCLA baseball was eliminated by No. 1 Cal State Fullerton, this time falling a win short of reaching its second consecutive NCAA Super Regional appearance.
After UCLA won the first matchup between the two teams on Friday night, it was unable to put Fullerton away in the final two games of the regional. The Bruins never seemed to capitalize on opportunities in their 5-4 defeat on Monday night in front of 3,012 fans.
In the most important game of the year, coach John Savage sent freshman left-hander Rob Rasmussen to the mound in hopes of obtaining the final win. Rasmussen, making his second career start, gave up three runs on six hits in three innings pitched.
The Titans broke a scoreless tie with a pair of two-out runs in the bottom of the third inning. After third baseman Joel Weeks singled and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by catcher Dustin Garneau, second baseman Joe Scott added a single of his own to put runners on the corners. Rasmussen then managed to strike out Fellhauer, inching one out closer to escaping the jam.
But Rasmussen was unable to retire shortstop Christian Colon, who came up with yet another base hit to drive in the game’s first run. Right fielder Erik Komatsu smacked Rasmussen’s next pitch for a single to score Scott and put the Bruins in a 2-0 hole.
Leading off the top of the fourth inning, Bruin left fielder Blair Dunlap immediately responded by launching a home run down the left field line to cut the deficit in half. Dunlap’s hit also snapped Fullerton pitcher Brian Wilson’s streak of nine consecutive batters retired.
The Bruins then put two runners in scoring position with no outs after a walk by second baseman Alden Carrithers and a double off the bat of first baseman Casey Haerther. A sacrifice fly by catcher Ryan Babineau scored Carrithers from third to even the score, 2-2.
But the game did not stay tied for long; the Titans scored two in the fourth on a double by Garneau.
UCLA right fielder Brady Dolan led off the fifth with a single to center field and moved to third base on a pair of wild pitches. The Bruins moved within a run on a single by catcher Brent Dean to score Dolan from third. Following a sacrifice bunt by Curtis, both Dunlap and Carrithers struck out swinging to strand Dean, who represented the tying run, on second base.
After easily retiring the first two Titan batters in the bottom of the fifth, it looked as if right-handed reliever Jason Novak was going to keep the deficit to one. But a single by pitcher Brian Wilson and a trio of walks, the latter two allowed by left-hander Brendan Lafferty, gave Fullerton another run to increase its lead to 5-3.
Murphy lined a pitch to right-center field for a leadoff double in the seventh. Murphy, who remained on second following strikeouts by Dolan and Dean, made it a one-run game when he scored on Curtis’ two-out single to left field.
With two outs in the eighth and UCLA trailing by a run, Crawford doubled, but Babineau was unable to drive him in.