UCLA
40-8, 18-5
Washington State
10-35-1, 2-20-1
No. 1 UCLA Routs WSU 10-0, Hits 40-Win Plateau
May 11, 2019 | Baseball
PULLMAN, Wash. โ No. 1 UCLA launched four home runs and received another dominant start from reigning Pac-12 Pitcher of the Week Jack Ralston in a 10-0 rout of Washington State on Saturday afternoon at Bailey-Brayton Field. The victory gave UCLA its 40th victory of the season, making the 2019 Bruins the fastest in program history to reach the 40-win plateau.
It was the second consecutive Saturday blowout for the Bruins (40-8, 18-5), who hit a program-record seven home runs and got seven shutout innings from Ralston in an 18-3 win at Arizona State last weekend.
The win also clinched the series for UCLA, which has now won all 12 of its weekend series this season. They Bruins remain the only team in the NCAA who has gone undefeated in series in 2019.
A week after being named the Pac-12 Pitcher of the Week for the first time in his career, Ralston one-upped himself for an encore performance against WSU. The Newhall, Calif. native struck out a career-high 12 batters over seven shutout innings, moving to 9-0 on the year to keep pace in the race for the league lead in wins.
UCLA had standout offensive performances up and down the lineup, led by a 3-4, three RBI day from Ryan Kreidler who finished a triple short of the cycle. He clubbed a two-run home run to left-center in the top of the first inning to plate the eventual game-winning run for UCLA.
Kreidler was just one of four Bruins to go yard on Saturday.
In the fifth, junior first baseman Michael Toglia (2-5) lofted a two-run shot inside the right field foul pole to give him his team-leading 10th roundtripper of the year. With that blast, he became the first Bruin since 2000 to hit double-digit home runs in consecutive years (Chase Utley, Garrett Atkins, and Bill Scott all accomplished the feat in 1999-2000).
An inning later, both freshman center fielder Matt McLain (1-3) and junior second baseman Chase Strumpf (2-2, three walks) hit big flies to put the game out of reach at 9-0.
Garrett Mitchell (2-5, two runs) and Jack Stronach (2-4, double) also recorded multi-hit days to round out the Bruin offense.
Ralston didn't relent despite the big lead, shutting down the Cougars (10-35-1, 2-20-1) all afternoon.
WSU only threatened in a pair of innings while he was in the game, and each time Ralston came up with big punchouts to eliminate the threat.
In the second inning, first baseman Kyle Manzardo led off with a base hit and moved to second on a groundout, but Ralston came up with a strikeout of Tyson Guerrero before inducing a harmless fly ball to right to end the frame. WSU mounted its biggest rally of the game in the fourth, stringing together back-to-back singles with two outs. A wild pitch moved both those runners into scoring position, but Ralston got Guerrero to chase an elevated fastball for an inning-ending strikeout.
Ralston recorded 1-2-3 innings in the first, third, sixth, and seventh innings. He was at his most effective in the latter innings of his outing, retiring nine straight batters between the fifth and seventh innings, a stretch that included seven strikeouts.
The Bruin bullpen completed the shutout with two scoreless innings of relief.
Michael Townsend inherited a one-on, nobody out situation in the eighth inning and stranded that runner, allowing just a one-out single.
Freshman lefty Daniel Colwell followed with a scoreless ninth in his NCAA debut. Colwell recovered after allowing base hits to the first two batters he faced, rolling up a 5-3 double play before ending the game on a flyout to center. His was the first inning thrown by a UCLA left-handed pitcher this season.
The Bruins look to complete the sweep on Sunday afternoon at 12:05 p.m. Freshman righty Jesse Bergin (5-0, 3.36 ERA) is scheduled to start for UCLA.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Ralston, Jack (9-0)
L: Block, A.J. (0-7)
Batting:
2B: Kreidler, Ryan 1 ; Toglia, Michael 1 ; Stronach, Jack 1 ; Cardenas, Noah 1 ; Hirabayashi, Jake 1
HR: Kreidler, Ryan 1 ; Strumpf, Chase 1 ; Toglia, Michael 1 ; McLain, Matt 1
RBI: Kreidler, Ryan 3 ; Strumpf, Chase 2 ; Toglia, Michael 2 ; Stronach, Jack 1 ; Hirabayashi, Jake 1 ; McLain, Matt 1
SH: McLain, Matt 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Mitchell, Garrett 2 ; Kreidler, Ryan 1 ; Strumpf, Chase 2 ; Toglia, Michael 2 ; Cardenas, Noah 1 ; Hirabayashi, Jake 1 ; McLain, Matt 1
SB: Mitchell, Garrett 1 ; Kreidler, Ryan 1
CS: Kreidler, Ryan 1
