UCLA
Washington
No. 11 UCLA Wins Extra Innings Walk-Off Thriller, 5-4, over Washington
March 15, 2015 | Baseball
LOS ANGELES – The No. 11 UCLA Bruins defeated the Washington Huskies, 5-4, in 13 innings on Sunday afternoon at Jackie Robinson Stadium. Trent Chatterton delivered the game-winning sacrifice-fly with the bases loaded and no outs to seal the victory for UCLA. The Bruins win the Pac-12 opening weekend series, 2-1, over the Huskies.
Ty Moore led off the 13th inning with a single up the middle and was followed by Kort Peterson who legged out a bunt single. Justin Hazard then reached on an error by the third baseman, setting up Trent Chatterton for the game-clinching play. Down in the count, 0-2, Chatterton launched a deep fly ball to right center field that was long enough to score Moore from third and end the contest.
Senior closer David Berg (1-0) pitched a career-high six innings in relief, totaling a career-high eight strikeouts, while allowing no runs, to earn his first win of the season. Washington's Troy Rallings (1-1) allowed one run over 7.1 innings in relief to receive the loss.
Chatterton tied his career-high in hits (3-for-5, 2B, R, RBI) to lead the UCLA attack. Shortstop Kevin Kramer also had three hits (3-for-3, 2B), while Christoph Bono and Darrell Miller Jr. each provided a run batted in.
Washington (13-7, 1-2) secured the game's first run in the top of the second inning on one swing from first baseman Branden Berry. The junior served a 2-2 pitch from Poteet over the left field fence for his third home run of the season to put the Huskies on top 1-0.
UCLA (14-5, 2-1) quickly responded in the bottom half of the second with a tally of their own. Chris Keck and Ty Moore earned back-to-back walks to begin the inning, marking the end of the day for Huskies' starter Joshua Fredendall. Peterson followed by laying a sacrifice-bunt down to move the runners over to second and third which set up the sacrifice-fly from Miller Jr. to tie the game at one.
The contest proved to be a true see-saw affair that saw both teams exchange blows throughout the afternoon.
After the Huskies added two runs in the top of the third to take the lead back, the Bruins responded with three tallies of their own in the bottom of the fifth. With Peterson on third and Chatterton on first, Bono dropped a bunt down the third base line for a single. Attempting to catch Bono at first, Huskies' third baseman Alex Schmidt threw the ball over the first baseman's head and down the right field line. The error allowed Bono to reach third with two runs coming in ahead of him. Bono then came home, three batters later, on a wild pitch to put UCLA on top 4-3 after five innings.
Washington wasted no time locking the game up at four with an RBI double in the top of the sixth inning. After Schmidt walked, Chris Baker doubled to deep right center field to knot the game at four runs apiece.
The two sides would proceed to play to a stalemate the rest of the way until the game-winning play in the 13th inning. However, the Bruins had chances in the 10th and 12th inning, moving a runner all the way to third base in each instance.
Entering in the eighth inning, Berg shut down the Washington offense for six consecutive frames to give the Bruins the opportunity to win. The senior All-American threw 73 pitches in relief to finish out the game and earn the win for UCLA.
UCLA continues Pac-12 play when they host the Utah Utes on Friday, March 20 at 6:00pm PT at Jackie Robinson Stadium. As with every game this season, fans can listen to all of the action live at uclabruins.com. For tickets please visit uclabruins.com/tickets or call 310-UCLA-WIN.
Notes: Kevin Kramer led UCLA in average (.636), hits (7), doubles (2), home runs (1), slugging percentage (1.091), on base percentage (.714) and tied for the team lead in runs batted in (2) this weekend. Over the last nine seasons, UCLA is 23-4 against the Washington Huskies. Kramer and Chris Keck each extended their hitting streaks to six games this weekend.
