UCLA
19-19
Cal State Fullerton
25-14
Late Comeback Falls Short at Fullerton
April 27, 2016 | Baseball
FULLERTON, Calif. – The UCLA Bruins mounted a late rally, but fell in a midweek road contest to the Cal State Fullerton Titans, 10-7, on Tuesday evening at Goodwin Field. The loss ends the Bruins' four-game win streak entering tonight's game.
The Bruins scored one run in the eighth and three runs in the ninth to cut the deficit to three. However, with the tying run at the plate, UCLA fell short as Daniel Rosica lined out to first to end the comeback effort.
UCLA reliever Justin Hooper (1-1) got the loss, allowing three runs on one hit in 0.1 inning of work out of the bullpen. Brett Conine (3-2) got the win for the Titans, allowing one run on two hits over 2.0 innings of relief.
The Bruin offense totaled 11 hits and was led by Kort Peterson (1-for-3, 2B, 4 RBI, BB) who drove in four of the seven runs for UCLA. Three other Bruins finished with multi-hit games, including Luke Persico (3-for-4, 2 R, BB) who led the team with three hits.
UCLA (19-19) put runs on the board in the first inning for the third time in the last four games and jumped out to an early two-run lead on the Titans. After the first two batters were retired, Persico and Sean Bouchard recorded back-to-back singles to put a pair on for Peterson. The Bruin designated hitter then launched the first pitch he saw over the center fielder's head for a two-run double to give UCLA the, 2-0, lead.
Cal State Fullerton (25-14) cut the Bruin lead in half in the bottom of the first on a controversial home run call. Timmy Richards led the inning off with a high-drive over the left field foul pole which was originally ruled a foul ball. However, after further discussion with the umpiring crew, the ball was ruled fair and the Titans were within one.
The Bruins fought back to regain their two-run lead in the third when Peterson knocked in his third run of the game on an RBI-ground out, but three errors helped Fullerton plate six in the bottom half to snatch the lead from UCLA. The Titans totaled five hits, but the Bruins aided their efforts with a trio of outfield errors and found themselves behind, 7-3.
The Titans tacked on three more runs in the sixth to extend their lead to seven. Ruben Cardenas cleared the bases with a double down the left field line to get Cal State Fullerton to double-digits with their eighth, ninth and 10th runs of the evening.
Daniel Rosica drove in a run with a two-out RBI-single in the eighth to pull UCLA back within six. Then, in the ninth, the Bruins mounted a last ditch comeback effort, loading the bases with no outs. Peterson drew a bases loaded walk to bring one run in and Trent Chatterton drove in two more with a two-out single that caromed off of second base and into the outfield. However, UCLA failed to score any more runs and eventually fell, 10-7.
UCLA now travels to Salt Lake City to take on the Utah Utes for a three-game Pac-12 series beginning on Friday, April 29 at 11:00am PT. Fans can listen to all three games live on uclabruins.com or watch live via the Utah live stream on pac-12.com/live/university-utah.
Notes: Eric Filia has now reached base in 37 of 38 games this season and is currently riding a seven game hit-streak…Kort Peterson set a new single game career-high with four RBI and has now reached base in 12 consecutive games…18 of Peterson's 24 RBI have come against non-conference opponents…Luke Persico is hitting .524 (11-for-21) over his last five games…Scott Burke tied a single game season-high with three strikeouts.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Conine, Brett (3-2)
L: Hooper, Justin (1-1)
Batting:
2B: Peterson, Kort 1 ; Stephens, Brett 1
RBI: Peterson, Kort 4 ; Chatterton, Trent 2 ; Rosica, Daniel 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Filia, Eric 2 ; Persico, Luke 2 ; Bouchard, Sean 2 ; Stephens, Brett 1
HBP: Peterson, Kort 1 ; Urabe, Brett 1 ; Chatterton, Trent 1
Batting:
2B: Cardenas, Ruben 1 ; LoForte, Hank 1
HR: Richards, Timmy 1
RBI: Richards, Timmy 2 ; Blaser, Dalton 1 ; Cardenas, Ruben 4 ; Kauhaahaa, Coby 1
SH: Stieb, Tyler 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Richards, Timmy 2 ; Pinkston, Tanner 2 ; Blaser, Dalton 2 ; Hurst, Scott 2 ; Cardenas, Ruben 1 ; LoForte, Hank 1
SB: Richards, Timmy 1
