UCLA
2-0
St. John's
0-2
Bruins Throw Combined Three-Hitter, Beat St. John's 9-0
February 16, 2019 | Baseball
LOS ANGELES โ Behind a four-run second inning and a career-best start from redshirt junior right-hander Jack Ralston, No. 3-ranked UCLA secured a series-clinching 9-0 win over visiting St. John's on Saturday afternoon at Jackie Robinson Stadium.
The Bruins (2-0) scored all the runs they would need in the second inning, pouncing all over Red Storm starter Jeff Belge. Freshman center fielder Matt McLain, who earned the game-winning RBI in Friday night's series opener, landed the first big punch of the rally, driving a fly ball over the center fielder's head for a triple that plated junior first baseman Michael Toglia.
UCLA kept up the pressure after McLain's three-bagger, as four of the next five batters notched hits to stretch the lead to 4-0. Jake Pries was up first, going with an elevated fastball on the outside half of the plate and sending into the right-field corner for an RBI double. After a sac bunt moved him to third, Ryan Kreidler back-spun a fly ball off the right field wall for UCLA's second RBI triple of the frame.
Freshman catcher Noah Cardenas, receiving his first collegiate start and at-bat, capped the inning's scoring by barreling up a first-pitch fastball into right-center for a run-scoring single.
That four-run cushion proved to be more than enough for Ralston, who turned in the finest outing of his career in his 2019 debut.ย
The Newhall, Calif. native allowed just three hits over six shutout innings, matching his career-high with seven strikeouts while walking just one. The bullpen followed with three shutout innings to polish off the combined three-hitter.ย
Not only did the Red Storm not score on the Bruins, they hardly even threatened. SJU got runners on the corners with one out in the second inning, but Ralston quickly got out of that jam with a tailor-made 4-6-3 double play from the next batter. The visitors didn't get a runner in scoring position the rest of the afternoon.
Ralston was at his best in the third, striking out the side in order. He got all three batters he faced to chase breaking balls for swinging strikeouts. He added a pair of backwards-Ks in the fifth.
"Mixing pitches, staying in the zone, pounding the gloveย were the biggest keys today," said Ralston. "I didn't make a whole lot of adjustments through the game, I just continued to use my defense and kept feeding off that."
The Bruins would add an insurance run in the sixth โ Ryan Kreidler doubled before scoring on a Jeremy Ydens base hit โ and then break the game open with a four-run seventh. That frame was helped along by five walks and a hit-by-pitch from St. John's pitchers.
The bullpen shut it down for UCLA with three collective innings of scoreless relief. Redshirt senior Nate Hadley started it with a 1-2-3 seventh featuring a pair of strikeouts, then sophomore Michael Townsend followed with a shutout eighth. Freshman right-hander Nick Nastrini closed it out by going three-up, three-down in the ninth. All three were making their season debuts.
Paired with yesterday's 3-2 victory (both of St. John's runs were unearned), UCLA's pitchers have combined to allow no earned runs over the first 18 innings of the campaign.
"We beat a pretty good pitcher in Mooney yesterday and we beat another good pitcher today," said UCLA head coach John Savage. "We pitched well today, played defense. You keep on learning from the previous day - win, lose, or draw - and we did a pretty good job of coming back after a tight game and separating ourselves with a four-spot early on, and then kept building off that."
Ydens (2-3, two RBIs) and Kreidler (2-2, three runs scored) both finished with multiple hits for UCLA on Saturday.
UCLA goes for the series sweep on Sunday at 1:00 p.m. Freshman right-hander Jesse Bergin is scheduled to toe the rubber for the Bruins in his collegiate debut, and will be opposed by St. John's junior southpaw Joe LaSorsa. Live audio will be available through UCLABruins.com. ย
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Ralston, Jack (1-0)
L: BELGE, Jeff (0-1)
Base Running:
CS: BARTELS, Carson 1
Batting:
2B: Pries, Jake 1 ; Kreidler, Ryan 1
3B: McLain, Matt 1 ; Kreidler, Ryan 1
RBI: Ydens, Jeremy 2 ; Kendall, Kevin 1 ; Strumpf, Chase 1 ; McLain, Matt 1 ; Pries, Jake 1 ; Kreidler, Ryan 1 ; Cardenas, Noah 1 ; Cuellar, Kyle 1
SH: Mitchell, Garrett 1 ; Cardenas, Noah 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Toglia, Michael 2 ; McLain, Matt 1 ; Pries, Jake 2 ; Kreidler, Ryan 3 ; Cuellar, Kyle 1
HBP: Ydens, Jeremy 1
