UCLA
1-0
Portland
0-1
No. 13 UCLA Wins on Opening Day over Portland, 7-2
February 16, 2018 | Baseball
LOS ANGELES โ Kyle Cuellar drove in three runs and Jake Bird threw six solid innings as the No. 13 UCLA baseball team earned a 7-2 win over Portland on opening day Friday at Jackie Robinson Stadium.
Bird earned the win tossing 6.0 innings allowing just one unearned run on three hits. The senior totaled six strikeouts and no walks in his first opening day start of his career. Portland starter Jordan Horak allowed four runs on two hits with five walks to take the loss.
UCLA jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning as Daniel Amaral led off with a walk and later scored on a two-out single up the middle off the bat of Cuellar.
The Bruins grabbed a 3-0 advantage in the third inning as Jake Hirabayashi hit a bases-loaded single to left field followed by Ryan Kreidler lifting a fly ball to right field to plate Chase Strumpf on a sacrifice fly.
UCLA put up three runs in the fourth inning highlighted by a two-out RBI-double to left field by Strumpf and a single up the middle off the bat of Jake Pries to go up 6-0.
Portland scored its first run in the top of the sixth inning but the Bruins responded with a run of their own in the bottom half of the inning as Cuellar drove in Jeremy Ydens for his third RBI of the game to make the score 7-1.
UCLA's bullpen of Nick Scheidler, Chase Farrell, Brian Gadsby and Matt Walker combined to throw 3.0 innings allowing one run on three hits with five strikeouts.
UCLA (1-0) ended the game with seven runs on five hits with one error, while Portland (0-1) finished with two runs on six hits with two errors.
The Bruins and Pilots will play game two of this three-game series on Saturday at 2 p.m. PT at Jackie Robinson Stadium.
Game Notes: UCLA is 9-5 on opening day under head coach John Savage โฆ Kyle Cuellar tied a career-high with three RBIs โฆ Jake Bird threw six or more innings for the sixth time in his career โฆ Every Bruin in the starting lineup reached base at least once โฆ Brian Gadsby struck out the side in the eighth inning, falling one strikeout short of his career-high โฆ Chase Farrell made his collegiate debut on the mound tossing 0.2 innings in relief.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Bird, Jake (1-0)
L: HORAK, Jordan (0-1)
Batting:
2B: McKINNEY, Jace 1
RBI: LOPEZ, Daniel 1 ; McKINNEY, Jace 1
SH: BRUNDAGE, Beau 1
Base Running:
RUNS: HAWKEN, Cody 1 ; ELSKE, Dutton 1
CS: KELLY, Matt 1
Batting:
2B: Ydens, Jeremy 1 ; Strumpf, Chase 1
RBI: Cuellar, Kyle 3 ; Strumpf, Chase 1 ; Pries, Jake 1 ; Hirabayashi, Jake 1 ; Kreidler, Ryan 1
SF: Kreidler, Ryan 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Amaral, Daniel 2 ; Ydens, Jeremy 2 ; Cuellar, Kyle 1 ; Strumpf, Chase 2
SB: Amaral, Daniel 1
HBP: Cuellar, Kyle 1 ; Pries, Jake 2 ; Rosica, Daniel 1
