UCLA
7-11, 1-2
Arizona
15-4, 2-1
UCLA Completes Comeback over No. 12 Arizona
March 19, 2017 | Baseball
LOS ANGELES โ Kyle Cuellar went 3-for-4 including driving home the game-tying runs in the ninth inning, while Ryan Kreidler hit a two-run home run as the UCLA baseball came back from three runs down to defeat No. 12 Arizona, 8-7, in 10 innings on Sunday from Jackie Robinson Stadium.
Tied at 7-7 in the 10th inning, Jake Hirabayashi would lead off the inning with a line drive base hit to center field. A wild pitch and a Nick Valaika sacrifice bunt placed Hirabayashi at third base with one out. Arizona pitcher Alfonso Rivas' next pitch would get away from the catcher to allow the game-winning run to score.
UCLA trailed 7-5 going into the ninth inning as Michael Toglia and Daniel Amaral recorded singles followed by Sean Bouchard being hit by a pitch to load the bases for Cuellar. With a full count, Cuellar brought home a pair of runs with a single through the right-side of the infield to send the game to extra innings.
Down 4-1 in the seventh inning, UCLA cut the Arizona lead to just one run when Kreidler hit a two-run blast over the left-field fence with two outs for his first career home run. The Wildcats pushed its lead back to a three-run advantage in the top of the eighth inning on back-to-back solo home runs by Nick Quintana and Cesar Salazar.
The Bruins once again brought the deficit to just one run in the eighth inning as pinch hitter Zander Clarke ripped a single through the left-side of the infield with the bases loaded to bring home Jeremy Ydens and Bouchard and make the score 6-5. The Wildcats added one run in the top of the ninth on a Jared Oliva sacrifice fly for the two-run lead headed to the bottom of the ninth.
Arizona took its first lead of the game in the third inning as the Wildcats scored a pair of runs. Cameron Cannon began the scoring with a double that snuck just inside the left-field foul line followed two batters later by a Rivas RBI-single. The Wildcats added two runs in the fourth inning to make the score 4-1.
The Bruins scored the first run of the game in the bottom of the first inning as Sean Bouchard hit a hard groundball to the shortstop to bring home Jeremy Ydens from third base.
UCLA's Matt Walker (1-0) earned the win, while starter Griffin Canning threw 4.0 innings allowing four runs, three earned on six hits with two strikeouts. Arizona's Alfonso Rivas (0-1) suffers the loss as Rio Gomez earned the no-decision after tossing 7.0 innings allowing three runs on five hits.
UCLA will return to Jackie Robinson Stadium next weekend when it hosts California for a three-game Pac-12 series beginning on Friday at 6 p.m. (PT). All three games of the series will be televised live on the Pac-12 Network.
Game Notes: Griffin Canning made his second start of the weekend after tossing just 1.1 innings on Friday before the game was postponed due to fog โฆ Canning's two strikeouts now puts him 21st on UCLA's all-time strikeout list with 204 โฆ Sean Bouchard leads the team with 11 RBIs โฆ Ryan Kreidler leads the team with four multi-RBI games after his first career home run in the seventh inning โฆ Kyle Cuellar is tied for second on the team in RBIs after recording two in the ninth inning ... Zander Clarke recorded his first two RBIs of the season โฆ Daniel Amaral leads the team with seven multi-hit games.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Walker, Matt (1-0)
L: Rivas, Alfonso (0-1)
Batting:
2B: Rivas, Alfonso 1 ; Oliva, Jared 1 ; Cannon, Cameron 1
HR: Quintana, Nick 1 ; Salazar, Cesar 1
RBI: Rivas, Alfonso 1 ; Oliva, Jared 1 ; Quintana, Nick 1 ; Salazar, Cesar 1 ; Lewis, Kyle 1 ; Cannon, Cameron 1
SH: Morimoto, Mitchell 1 ; Salazar, Cesar 1 ; Lewis, Kyle 1
SF: Oliva, Jared 1 ; Lewis, Kyle 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Rivas, Alfonso 1 ; Oliva, Jared 1 ; Quintana, Nick 2 ; Salazar, Cesar 2 ; Cannon, Cameron 1
HBP: Rivas, Alfonso 1 ; Lewis, Kyle 1
Batting:
2B: Cuellar, Kyle 1 ; Pries, Jake 1
HR: Kreidler, Ryan 1
RBI: Bouchard, Sean 1 ; Cuellar, Kyle 2 ; Clarke, Zander 2 ; Kreidler, Ryan 2
SH: Valaika, Nick 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Amaral, Daniel 1 ; Ydens, Jeremy 2 ; Bouchard, Sean 1 ; Stephens, Brett 1 ; Hirabayashi, Jake 1 ; Kreidler, Ryan 1 ; Rosica, Daniel 1
SB: Ydens, Jeremy 1
HBP: Bouchard, Sean 1 ; Cuellar, Kyle 1
