UCLA
13-14, 6-4
Washington
17-11, 5-2
UCLA Drops Series Opener to Washington, 7-3
April 07, 2017 | Baseball
LOS ANGELES โ Brett Stephens hit two home runs and Griffin Canning collected eight strikeouts as the UCLA baseball team dropped the series opener to Washington, 7-3, on Friday night from Jackie Robinson Stadium.
Trailing 5-1, UCLA would cut the Washington lead in half as Stephens hit his second home run of the game with a two-run blast to right field and make it a 5-3 game. Stephens is the second Bruins this season to hit two home runs in a game, matching Sean Bouchard's mark from Feb. 25 against Gonzaga.
The Huskies pushed their lead to 7-3 behind a pair of solo home runs by John Naff in the seventh inning and MJ Hubbs in the eighth inningย for the final score.
Stephens put UCLA on the board quickly as he led off the bottom of the first inning with a solo home run to right field. The Huskies responded with a two-run third inning as Joey Morgan hit a RBI-double followed by Willie MacIver plating a run with a sacrifice fly to centerfield for a 2-1 advantage.
Washington extended its lead to 4-1 in the fifth inning as Morgan hit a two-run home run to left field followed by a MJ Hubbs RBI-single in the sixth inning to make the score 5-1.
UCLA starter Griffin Canning (2-2) suffered the loss allowing five runs, four earned, on 10 hits in 5.2 innings of work. Washington's Noah Bremer (3-2) earned the win tossing 7.0 innings in relief allowing two runs on two hits with 11 strikeouts.
The Bruins finished the game with three runs on three hits and one error, while the Huskies ended the game with seven runs on 13 hits and no errors.
UCLA and Washington will play game two of the three-game weekend series on Saturday starting a 2 p.m. (PT) from Jackie Robinson Stadium.
Game Notes: Brett Stephens hit his third and fourth home runs of his career and first since 2015 โฆ Griffin Canning struck out eight or more batters for the fifth time this season โฆ The UCLA pitching staff recorded double-digit strikeouts for the ninth time this season โฆ Chase Strumpf tallied the only other hit for the Bruins.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Bremer, Noah (3-2)
L: Canning, Griffin (2-2)
Batting:
2B: Morgan, Joey 1
HR: Hubbs, MJ 1 ; Morgan, Joey 1 ; Naff, John 1
RBI: Hubbs, MJ 2 ; Morgan, Joey 3 ; MacIver, Willie 1 ; Naff, John 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Meggs, Jack 1 ; Hubbs, MJ 2 ; Morgan, Joey 2 ; Naff, John 1 ; Graffanino, AJ 1
SB: Meggs, Jack 1
HBP: Morgan, Joey 1
Batting:
HR: Stephens, Brett 2
RBI: Stephens, Brett 3
Base Running:
RUNS: Stephens, Brett 2 ; Kreidler, Ryan 1
