UCLA
45-8, 22-5
Washington at UCLA
28-22, 12-15
No. 1 UCLA Hits Six Homers in 14-2 Rout of Washington
May 19, 2019 | Baseball
LOS ANGELES – No. 1 UCLA clubbed six home runs and received eight shutout innings from its bullpen to record a sweep-clinching 14-2 win over Washington on Sunday afternoon in the final regular season home game of the year at Jackie Robinson Stadium.
The Bruins' (45-8, 22-5) rout of the Huskies (28-22, 12-15), coupled with Stanford's loss to Oregon State on Sunday, gave UCLA a 1.5 game lead in the Pac-12 standings heading into the final weekend of the regular season.
Sunday marked the second time this month that UCLA has hit six or more home runs in a game, as the Bruins recorded seven roundtrippers in an 18-3 win at Arizona State on May 4. Juniors Ryan Kreidler and Jeremy Ydens each had a pair of dingers to lead the barrage, while Michael Toglia and Garrett Mitchell also went yard to wrap up dominant offensive series. The Bruins ended up outscoring the Huskies 26-5 for the weekend.
UCLA dominated Sunday's affair practically from start to finish. The Bruins put up five runs in the bottom of the first to take a commanding lead early, then outscored Washington 9-0 from the third inning on.
The Huskies produced all their runs in the second inning, but the Bruin bullpen went on to shut them out the rest of the way.
Five UCLA relievers, led by sophomore righty Michael Townsend who faced one over the minimum in a four-inning outing, limited the Huskies to just three hits over eight scoreless innings.
Townsend was rewarded with the victory after arguably the finest outing of his Bruin career. The Los Alamitos, Calif. native inherited a two-on, no-out situation in the top of the second and got UCLA out of the jam without any further damage after rolling up three straight grounders to third base.
He would go on to retire the next eight batters in order, allowing his first baserunner on a two-out walk in the fifth. He bounced back to strike out UW's David Rhodes to get out of that inning and end his outing on a high note. His four innings of work were a new season-high.
Freshman righty Jack Filby, senior righty Nate Hadley, junior righty Kyle Mora, and freshman southpaw Daniel Colwell all turned in scoreless frames to complete the game. Filby and Colwell both went 1-2-3 in their innings of work.
The eight collective innings were the most pitched by the Bruin bullpen in a game this year, and represented the second time this season that UCLA had gone without allowing a run while pitching seven or more innings (Mar. 12 at Long Beach State).
For the week, UCLA's pen threw a combined 19 innings and didn't allow a single run.
Offensively, the Bruins' had their second-most productive game of the year in both runs and hits (16). Four separate Bruins had three hits or more, including a career-first four-hit game from Kreidler.
UCLA received a bit of a help from the Washington defense in the decisive first-inning rally.
Kreidler jump-started the rally with a solo shot to left-center to open the game's scoring, but the Bruins went on to post four unearned runs before the inning was over. After Chase Strumpf walked following Kreidler's bomb, UW lost a Toglia fly ball in the sun and then dropped the relay throw on a potential inning-ending double play. UCLA made the Huskies pay for those miscues as Jack Stronach singled through the left side to plate one run before Ydens unloaded for a three-run blast to center field, his first home run of the year.
Kreidler and Mitchell posted RBI extra-base hits in the fourth inning to bring in another two runs. Mitchell's was a triple into the left-center gap that gave him his fourth three-bagger of the weekend and ninth of the season. He is just one away from tying the UCLA school record, set in 1988 by Robbie Katzaroff.
Starting with Mitchell's two-run shot in the fifth, UCLA would homer in three of their final four offensive innings to turn the game into a blowout. Kreidler added his second of the day in the seventh, and Toglia added a solo homer later in the same frame. Ydens, who returned to the lineup this week after being out since Mar. 1, capped the day's scoring in the eighth with his second home run of the day.
Hadley, Jake Pries, and Jake Hirabayashi - UCLA's three seniors - were all honored in a pre-game ceremony.
UCLA concludes the 2019 regular season next weekend with a three-game series at Oregon starting at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 23. The Pac-12 Networks will carry all three of the games in Eugene.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Townsend, Michael (2-0)
L: Burgmann, Josh (4-6)
Batting:
RBI: Wainhouse, Joe 1 ; Cassinelli, Colton 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Cerrillo, Mason 1 ; Nichols, Rollie 1
Batting:
2B: Kreidler, Ryan 1 ; Cuellar, Kyle 1 ; McInerny, Will 1
3B: Mitchell, Garrett 1
HR: Mitchell, Garrett 1 ; Kreidler, Ryan 2 ; Toglia, Michael 1 ; Ydens, Jeremy 2
RBI: Mitchell, Garrett 3 ; Kreidler, Ryan 4 ; Toglia, Michael 1 ; Stronach, Jack 1 ; Ydens, Jeremy 5
Base Running:
RUNS: Mitchell, Garrett 3 ; Kreidler, Ryan 2 ; Strumpf, Chase 1 ; Toglia, Michael 1 ; Pries, Jake 1 ; Stronach, Jack 1 ; Cuellar, Kyle 1 ; Ydens, Jeremy 2 ; Hirabayashi, Jake 1 ; McInerny, Will 1
SB: Hirabayashi, Jake 1
CS: Ydens, Jeremy 1
