Tuesday night’s 2-1 win over Long Beach State may not have been the bounce back UCLA envisioned after a series loss to Stanford, but was nevertheless a bounce back and a bounce in the right direction for the Bruins as they completed their season sweep of the Dirtbags.
UCLA (29-12, 12-9 Pac-12) got on the board first in the fourth inning after junior infielder Trevor Brown sent a double to left-center field, driving in junior right fielder Jeff Gelalich who reached base after being hit by a pitch.
Brown finished 2-for-4 from the plate and added another RBI to increase the Bruins’ lead to two in the eighth inning. Brown gave credit to the Long Beach (21-21, 11-4 Big West) bullpen.
“It was a grind tonight. They pitched pretty well. Guys did a good job getting on base, and I was fortunate enough to come in to the situation and produce,” Brown said.
Freshman left-hander Grant Watson earned the win in his 12th start of the season, holding Long Beach scoreless for six innings. Brown felt that Watson’s momentum early on spilled over to the rest of the team.
“(Grant) was lights out tonight. He threw really well, really pounded the zone. When he goes out there and throws zeroes it makes it a lot easier for our offense to go out and try to put up some runs,” Brown said.
Despite the Bruins’ consistent pitching and defense, the Dirtbags nearly evened the score in the final innings, scoring their first run in the eighth inning and getting the tying run to third base in the bottom of the ninth.
Three pitchers in relief of Watson combined to limit Long Beach to only one hit in the final three innings. Freshman David Berg faced three batters and struck out one in one inning pitched; redshirt sophomore Ryan Deeter allowed one run; and junior closer Scott Griggs earned his 10th save. Junior center fielder Beau Amaral was a beneficiary of the bullpen’s strong performance.
“They definitely came out strong tonight. They’ve been great for us all year, and we have a lot of faith in them,” Amaral said.
Coach John Savage was equally pleased with his team’s defensive showing.
“We played really good defense. If we’re going to make a run at this thing, we’re going to have to play good defense, and we did that tonight,” Savage said.