April 18, 1999
Westwood, Calif. - With one away and the bases juiced in the bottom of the ninth, sophomore 2b Chase Utley erased a two-run deficit with a monster shot to left field off Arizona State reliever Robby Milner , giving the Bruins an 8-6 victory and a three-game sweep of the #14 Sun Devils in a highly crucial Pac-10 series at Jackie Robinson Stadium Sunday afternoon.
The slam was Utley's second homer of the game, as he nailed a two-run shot to right, giving the Bruins a 2-1 edge over ASU and starter Chad Pennington in the first inning. Utley also had a career-high six RBI to go along with his second career grand slam. The game was his fifth collegiate multi-homer game and second of the season.
The sweep was UCLA's first over Arizona State (32-15, 8-7 Pac-10) since 1986. The Bruins won on Friday 11-10 and on Saturday 8-3. The Bruins have taken six out of the last seven games, including a season-high three in a row for the fifth time this year. The ninth-inning comeback win was UCLA's fourth of the year.
UCLA (21-23, 5-7 Pac-10) took a 4-1 lead after three innings behind strong pitching from sophomore lhp Bobby Roe (2-3, 3.81) who struck out a career-high seven batters in six innings of work. After allowing the first three men to reach base in the third, the confident southpaw came through by sending the next three down on strikes. In all, Roe allowed just three runs off five hits to the nation's number one lineup (runs per game and batting average) in the no-decision.
Junior rf Brian Baron hit his first homer of the season in the second, a solo shot to left-center off Pennington that gave the Bruins a 3-1 edge. A transfer from Northwestern, it was Baron's first home run in a Bruin uniform.
Sophomore rhp Chad Cislak (2-1, 6.19) picked up his second victory of the season, and second of the series, by pitching the final two innings, striking out four and allowing just one hit. Cislak left a runner on third with one down in the top of the ninth by setting down the last two Sun Devils on strikes. Bruin pitchers struck out 12 Sun Devils in all.
Also aiding the UCLA offensive was senior ss Jack Santora, who reached base in five of his six plate appearances. The lead-off hitter earned a key walk in the bottom of the ninth to pave the way for Utley's heroics. Santora has an on-base percentage of .673 in his last 13 games.
Utley extended his hitting streak to ten games with his two-for-five, two-homer performance. During the streak, he is hitting .435 (20-46) with 14 runs, 15 RBI and three homers, two of which were grand slams (4/3 at Berkeley). Utley torched the Sun Devils with a 7-for-14, nine RBI performance in three games.
Sophomore 1b Garrett Atkins extended his season-high hitting streak to ten games as well with a 1-for-3 afternoon. Atkins is batting .375 during the streak, which began on the same day as Utley's, March 29th at Washington.
Next up for UCLA is a contest at Long Beach State, April 20 at 7:00pm. It is the finale of a two-game season series, that saw the 49ers taking the first one at Jackie Robinson on March 16, 9-7. Starting pitchers for this game should be available on Monday. Meanwhile, the Sun Devils have four days to rest up for a three-game series with the USC Trojans in Tempe, AZ.