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USC
#7 UCLA Drops Game Two of Weekend Series with #6 USC, 5-0
April 12, 2015 | Baseball
LOS ANGELES – The No. 7 UCLA Bruins dropped game two of the weekend series with No. 6 USC, 5-0, on Saturday night at Dedeaux Field. The loss evens the series at one game apiece.
USC starter Kyle Twomey (6-1) struck out seven batters over seven scoreless innings to earn the victory. Senior Grant Watson (5-3) conceded five runs on seven hits over 5.1 innings to garner the loss for UCLA.
Cody Poteet and Hunter Virant combined to pitch 2.2 innings in relief of Watson, allowing no runs on two hits, while striking out three batters.
The Bruins totaled nine hits, led by Trent Chatterton (2-for-3, BB), Chris Keck (2-for-4, 2B) and Luke Persico (2-for-5) who each had multi-hit games.
USC (26-8, 8-3) leapt out to the early first inning lead, marking just the sixth time this season that the Bruins have conceded a run in the opening frame. Lead-off man Bobby Stahel began the game with a walk and reached third on a sacrifice-bunt and steal. With one out, Jeremy Martinez then hit a ground ball to third base which began a 5-2-3-1-6-3-1-5 put-out at home plate, preventing Stahel from scoring after being caught in a run-down. Despite preventing Stahel from coming home, the Trojans went on to tally a pair on a Dante Flores two-out double, which followed a walk to Timmy Robinson, giving USC the 2-0 advantage.
One inning later, the Trojans tacked on two more runs on a home run from Stahel. For the second night in-a-row, the USC left fielder went deep on Bruin pitching. With two outs and no one on, Angelo La Bruna reached first on a slow hit infield single to keep the inning alive. Stahel then followed by taking a Watson fastball over the fence in left-center field to put the Trojans on top by four.
Stahel and La Bruna teamed up again for USC in the sixth inning to extend the lead to five. With one out, La Bruna doubled to left field and was brought home by the next batter, Stahel, on a two-strike RBI-single up the middle. The run pushed the Trojans ahead, 5-0, after six frames.
UCLA (24-7, 11-3) struggled all night to push a run across, leaving 12 men on base. The Bruins left runners stranded in seven of nine innings, including leaving the bases loaded in the fourth and seventh innings. Overall, the inability to get RBI hits proved to be UCLA's demise.
The Bruins and Trojans will play the deciding game in the series tomorrow at 2:00pm PT at Dedeaux Field, in Los Angeles, Calif. The game will be broadcast live on the Pac-12 Networks. Fans can also access live audio of the game at uclabruins.com.
Notes: This marks just the second time this season that UCLA has been shut out. Chris Keck is now 5-for-9 in the series with a double, a run and an RBI. Grant Watson had not allowed five earned runs in a start since April 18, 2014 at Utah.
