UCLA
Arizona State
Stellar Offense Leads #2 UCLA to Series Opening Win, 9-0, over #9 ASU
May 09, 2015 | Baseball
PHOENIX, ARIZ. – Every UCLA batter had at least one hit in an impressive series opening victory over Arizona State, 9-0, on Friday evening at Phoenix Municipal Stadium. The shutout win marks the seventh of the season for the Bruins.
Overall, UCLA totaled 16 hits, the 24th time the team has reached double-digit hits this season. Of the team's nine runs, six came with two outs. Chris Keck (3-for-5, 2B, HR, 3 R, RBI) and Brett Stephens (3-for-5, R, RBI, SB) led the way at the plate with three hits each. Kort Peterson (2-for-5, 3B, R, 2 RBI) was also productive, driving in a team-high two runs.
James Kaprielian (9-4) hurled seven scoreless innings, striking out three, while allowing just five hits, to earn the victory. Seth Martinez (2-1) allowed six runs on 10 hits in 5.2 innings to receive the loss for Arizona State.
UCLA (35-11, 17-5) scored a pair of runs in the top of the second inning to jump out to the early lead on the Sun Devils. Keck began the frame with a soft hit double down the left field line. Then, following a fly-out, Kort Peterson brought Keck in on a triple to left-center field for the opening run of the game. Trent Chatterton followed with a sacrifice-fly and UCLA led, 2-0, after two.
The Bruins then pushed ahead by three with one swing of the bat in the top of the fourth. Keck, leading off the inning again, took Martinez deep over the fence in right field, his team-high seventh home run, to put UCLA up, 3-0.
UCLA proceeded to back up its one-run fourth with another run in the fifth. The Bruins put together an impressive two-out rally to push the advantage to four. With two down, Kevin Kramer singled, Ty Moore walked, and Luke Persico singled to produce the fourth tally of the evening for the Bruins.
It all began to fall apart for Arizona State (29-16, 14-8) in the sixth inning with another two-out rally from UCLA. Chatterton and Christoph Bono recorded back-to-back singles to set the table for Stephens. The Bruin left fielder then battled through a nine-pitch at-bat to eventually lace a single back up the middle. The single scored Chatterton and a throwing error by the third baseman trying to catch Stephens advancing to second scored Bono as well. The next batter, Kramer, singled through the right side for the fourth consecutive base hit and came all the way around to score as the ball rolled under the right fielder's glove to the wall. Stephens also came home on the play to give UCLA the eight-run edge.
The Bruins went on to add one more run in top of the ninth to reach the final score, 9-0. With two outs yet again, a single from Keck, a walk to Darrell Miller Jr. and an RBI-single from Peterson produced the final run of the night.
Game two between UCLA and Arizona State will begin tomorrow, May 9, at 6:30pm PT. Fans can listen live at uclabruins.com or watch a live stream at pac-12.com/video/arizona-state-university.
Notes: UCLA is now 27-0 when leading after six innings, 28-0 after seven innings and 31-0 after eight innings. Chris Keck tied a season-high with three hits. This is the fifth time the Bruins have had 16 or more hits in a game. Five of nine UCLA hitters finished with multi-hit games.
