University of California, Los Angeles, Athletics
UCLA
Hofstra
UCLA Defeats Hofstra, 18-1, in Second Game of Weekend Series
February 14, 2015 | Baseball
LOS ANGELES – The UCLA Bruins defeated the Hofstra Pride, 18-1, on Saturday afternoon at Jackie Robinson Stadium. The victory pushes the Bruins record to 2-0 on the season.
Grant Watson pitched seven strong innings, allowing four hits and one run while striking out five batters to earn the win. Hofstra's Adam Heidenfelder allowed three runs and walked five batters over three innings to garner the loss.
In total, UCLA compiled 17 hits and 18 runs, the most runs scored by the Bruins since March 19, 2010 when they scored 20 runs in a victory over Oral Roberts.
Ten different Bruin hitters notched a hit led by sophomore Luke Persico who went 4-for-5 with two home runs and five runs batted in. Junior Christoph Bono also had a productive day at the plate going 3-for-6 with a double, a triple and two runs batted in.
Hofstra got on the score sheet first with an RBI single from Ryan Donovan in the second inning, but that would mark the last tally of the night for the Pride. The Bruins didn't wait long to capture the lead and pushed across three runs in the third inning to give them an early two-run advantage.
Two innings later, the Bruins added three more runs to the total, highlighted by a Christoph Bono RBI triple to right field. Following a Kort Peterson sacrifice fly and a Justin Hazard RBI groundout, Bono drove in Chris Keck with a hard hit ball that went past the right fielder and all the way to the outfield wall allowing the speedy junior to get around to third.
Then, in the sixth inning, Persico connected on the first pitch of the inning and sent a towering drive over the left center field fence for his first long ball of the season.
One inning later, Kevin Kramer out-did Persico by clearing the bases with a grand slam to center field. Bono led off the inning with a double, followed by back-to-back walks to Trent Chatterton and Brett Stephens to set the table for Kramer. The junior short stop did the rest by taking the 1-1 pitch and sending it a long way out of Jackie Robinson Stadium.
Already leading 11-1, the Bruins would go on to add seven more runs in the eighth inning to put the game away. Persico's three-run homer was one of seven hits UCLA totaled in the inning to reach the 18-1 final count.
UCLA (2-0) and Hofstra (0-2) will face off one more time in the final game of the series on Sunday, February 15 at 1:00pm PT at Jackie Robinson Stadium. Tomorrow's game can be heard live on uclabruins.com.
Notes: Christoph Bono set a new career-high in single game hits (3) and at bats (6), Kevin Kramer set a new career-high in single game runs batted in (4) and Luke Persico set a new career-high in single game runs (3), home runs (2) and runs batted in (5). This also marks Persico's first career home run. Freshman third baseman Sean Bouchard recorded his first career hit and freshman pitcher Jake Bird made his first career appearance.
