UCLA
29-6, 10-3
California at UCLA
19-13, 7-6
No. 1 UCLA Walks Off Cal 8-7 in Series Opener
April 19, 2019 | Baseball
LOS ANGELES – No. 1 UCLA came all the way back from a four-run deficit in Thursday night's series opener against Cal at Jackie Robinson Stadium, tying the game in the bottom of the eighth before earning a walk-off 8-7 win after Garrett Mitchell worked a bases loaded walk off Cal reliever Sean Sullivan.
The Bruins (29-6, 10-3 Pac-12), winners of a season-high eight straight games, were forced to rally after Cal (19-13, 7-6) put up a five-spot in the top of the fifth to go ahead 7-3.
UCLA cut that deficit in half in the bottom of the fifth thanks to a bases loaded, two-run single off the bat of Chase Strumpf.
Though they threatened in the sixth, the Bruins would have to wait until the bottom of the eighth to knot the score, as UCLA strung together three consecutive hits – a leadoff double from Jack Stronach, a double inside the third base bag from Matt McLain, and a run-scoring base hit from Kevin Kendall – to make it a one-run game before Ryan Kreidler wore an inside fastball with the bases loaded to force in the game-tying run.
UCLA continued to put together good at-bats in the bottom of the ninth. After Stronach singled with one-out to kick-start the rally, Kendall bounced back from a 1-2 count to draw a walk before Noah Cardenas was hit by a two-strike pitch to load the bases for Mitchell.
Mitchell, who had reached base three times already to that point in the day, took the first two pitched for called balls. Though Sullivan bounced back to even the count at 2-2, he missed with his next two offerings, walking Mitchell to bring in the game-winning run from third.
The Bruins' comeback was made possible by a Herculean effort from the bullpen, which collectively gave up just one hit while striking out seven over 4 2/3 scoreless innings.
Jack Filby started the parade with a near-perfect 1 2/3 inning outing. He entered the game with one out in the fifth, and proceeded to strike out both batters he faced. The freshman righty proceeded to go three-up, three-down in the sixth, needing just 10 pitches to retire the side.
Senior righty Nate Hadley and junior righty Kyle Mora followed with drama-free innings of their own, and then sophomore closer Holden Powell bounced back from a leadoff walk to strike out the side in the ninth. Among his ninth inning victims were reigning Golden Spikes Award winner Andrew Vaughn and Korey Lee, who had homered twice earlier in the game.
Powell, who leads the league in saves with 11, received the win to even his record at 2-2 on the year.
"It was an offensive game, both sides hit some balls really hard," said UCLA head coach John Savage. "After the five-run fifth, we did a good job of battling back. Being down by five, you need to make good pitches on the defensive side and put up quality at-bats on the offensive side, and it seemed we were able to do that tonight."
The Bruins and Bears went back-and-forth in the early innings of the game.
After Lee hit a solo homer in the top of the second, UCLA answered in the very next half-inning with a sac fly from McLain. Trailing 2-1, senior DH Jake Pries gave the Bruins their first lead of the game with a two-run blast to left field, his fourth home run of the year.
Pries, Stronach, and Kendall led the Bruins with two hits apiece. Mitchell reached base a team-high four times for the evening.
Thursday represented UCLA's third walk-off win of the season and the second in the past week. Junior first baseman Michael Toglia launched a three-run homer on Saturday to defeat then-No. 8 East Carolina University in the first game of a doubleheader.
UCLA and Cal play game two of their series on Friday night at 7:00 p.m. The Pac-12 Networks will televise the contest, which is scheduled for a 7:00 p.m. start.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Powell, Holden (2-2)
L: Sullivan, Sean (1-1)
Batting:
2B: Vaughn, Andrew 1 ; Nielsen, Garret 1
HR: Selma, Quentin 1 ; Lee, Korey 2
RBI: Selma, Quentin 3 ; Vaughn, Andrew 1 ; Lee, Korey 3
Base Running:
RUNS: Eden, Cameron 1 ; Selma, Quentin 1 ; Vaughn, Andrew 1 ; Lee, Korey 2 ; Holman, Grant 1 ; Nielsen, Garret 1
SB: Baker, Darren 1
Batting:
2B: McLain, Matt 1 ; Kendall, Kevin 1
HR: Pries, Jake 1
RBI: Mitchell, Garrett 1 ; Kreidler, Ryan 1 ; Strumpf, Chase 2 ; Pries, Jake 2 ; McLain, Matt 1 ; Kendall, Kevin 1
SH: Stronach, Jack 1
SF: McLain, Matt 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Strumpf, Chase 1 ; Pries, Jake 2 ; Stronach, Jack 1 ; Prendiz, Jordan 1 ; McLain, Matt 1 ; Kendall, Kevin 1 ; Cardenas, Noah 1
SB: Mitchell, Garrett 1 ; Strumpf, Chase 1 ; Kendall, Kevin 1
HBP: Kreidler, Ryan 1 ; Cardenas, Noah 1
