UCLA
12-11, 4-3
California
16-6, 5-2
Bruins Drop Opening Game at Cal
April 02, 2016 | Baseball
BERKELEY, Calif. – The UCLA Bruins lost game one of the weekend series to the 10th-ranked Cal Golden Bears, 9-1, on Friday evening at Evans Diamond.
Luke Persico (3-for-4, 2B) led the offensive attack which totaled seven hits. Sean Bouchard (0-for-4, RBI) went hitless, but drove in the lone run for the Bruins.
Griffin Canning (3-3) got the loss for UCLA, allowing a career-high nine runs (seven earned) on a career-high 13 hits in 6.1 innings of work. Cal starter Ryan Mason (4-1) earned the win, allowing just one run over seven innings.
Cal (16-6, 5-2) jumped out to the early first inning lead on the Bruins in tonight's contest. Devin Pearson led off with a double and moved up to third on a sacrifice bunt. Then, Mitchell Kranson drove him in with a double of his own to give the Golden Bears the 1-0 lead.
They then doubled up their lead in the third with another run. Kranson reached on a throwing error to get the frame started and eventually came home to score two batters later. Singles from Brett Cumberland and Brenden Farney teamed up to put the Golden Bears up by two.
Cal added three more in the fourth, totaling three hits in the inning, to take a 5-0 lead to the fifth inning.
UCLA (12-11, 4-3) finally got on the board in the top of the sixth to cut the Golden Bears' lead to four. Brett Urabe and Persico singled to begin the inning, with Persico advancing to second on the throw. With runners on second and third and no outs, the Bruins were primed for a big inning, but settled for just one on an RBI-groundout from Bouchard.
That was as close as the Bruins would get as Cal went on to score four runs in the bottom of the seventh to put the game away. Nick Halamandaris delivered an RBI-single and Robbie Tenerowicz added a two-RBI-single in the inning to sink the Bruins.
Game two of the series will begin tomorrow at 6:00pm PT at Evans Diamond. Fans can listen to the game live on uclabruins.com.
Notes: Eric Filia has now reached base in all 23 games this season…Filia has gone 65 consecutive at-bats without a strikeout…Sean Bouchard has driven in 18 runs in his last 12 games…Trent Chatterton has reached base in nine straight games…Jake Hirabayashi recorded his first career extra base hit with a double in the seventh inning…Griffin Canning allowed career-highs in hits (11), runs (9) and earned runs (7).
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Mason, Ryan (4-1)
L: Canning, Griffin (3-3)
Batting:
2B: Persico, Luke 1 ; Hirabayashi, Jake 1
RBI: Bouchard, Sean 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Urabe, Brett 1
SB: Stephens, Brett 1
Batting:
2B: Pearson, Devin 1 ; Kranson, Mitchell 2
RBI: Kranson, Mitchell 3 ; Cumberland, Brett 1 ; Farney, Brenden 1 ; Halamandaris, Nick 1 ; Tenerowicz, Robbie 2
SH: Knapp, Aaron 1
SF: Cumberland, Brett 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Pearson, Devin 2 ; Knapp, Aaron 1 ; Kranson, Mitchell 2 ; Cumberland, Brett 1 ; Celsi, Brian 1 ; Halamandaris, Nick 1 ; Tenerowicz, Robbie 1
