UCLA
44-8, 21-5
Washington at UCLA
28-21, 12-14
No. 1 UCLA One-Hits Washington, Moves Atop Pac-12 Standings
May 18, 2019 | Baseball
LOS ANGELES โ Junior right-hander Jack Ralston and a trio of relievers combined to throw a one-hitter as No. 1 UCLA blanked Washington 4-0 on Saturday night at Jackie Robinson Stadium to move into sole possession of first place in the Pac-12 Conference.
The win clinched another series win for the Bruins (44-8, 21-5 Pac-12), who have now won all 13 weekend series this year. UCLA has also won all of its home series for a second consecutive season. The Bruins moved a half-game ahead of Stanford on Saturday night after the Cardinal had its game against Oregon State canceled due to rain.
Ralston turned in yet another sterling performance against the Huskies, giving up just one single and striking out nine over six-plus innings to extend his current scoreless streak to 25 innings. Fresh off a career-high 12-strikeout performance at Washington State, Ralston retired the first 11 batters he faced before surrendering a base hit to Nick Kahle with two outs in the fourth inning.
The Huskies would get a runner on in each of the next two innings, but Ralston stopped them from advancing past first base both times. He received an assist from his bullpen after walking the first two batters of the seventh inning, as redshirt senior Nate Hadley came in and got the Bruins out of the jam by sandwiching a routine grounder with a pair of strikeouts to strand the runners on the corners.
Junior righty Kyle Mora and sophomore righty Holden Powell nailed it down from there, turning in 1-2-3 innings in the eighth and ninth, respectively, to finish off the game.
Saturday represented UCLA's first one-hitter since Jun. 2, 2013 and it was the fewest hits allowed by the team since James Kaprielian and David Berg teamed up for a 10-inning no-hitter on May 15, 2015. It was also the 11th shutout of the season for UCLA, extending their national lead.
Junior first baseman Michael Toglia (2-4, two runs) and Garrett Mitchell (1-3, RBI) provided more than enough offense for UCLA.
Toglia scored the first and last runs for the Bruins. He led off the bottom of the second by rolling a grounder through the right side for a single, then moved to third on a Jake Pries base hit before scoring on a Jack Stronach sac fly. He closed the day's scoring with a solo home run to right field in the bottom of the sixth, extending his team lead in homers to 12.
Mitchell meanwhile was mostly responsible for UCLA's two-spot in the fifth, the team's lone crooked number of the day. Batting with a runner on second and one away, Mitchell drilled a line drive into the left-center field gap for a run-scoring triple, then came across himself moments later on a Ryan Kreidler sac fly. The three-bagger was his team-leading eighth of the season, making him the first Bruin since 1988 to hit that mark (Robbie Katzaroff, 10).
Ralston improved his record to 10-0 on the year, making him UCLA's first 10-game winner since Kaprielian in 2015. He's lowered his ERA from 2.87 to 2.17 during his current scoreless streak, and has punched out 36 batters in 25 innings. The Newhall, Calif. native was named a Dick Howser Trophy Semifinalist earlier this week.
"He's been one of the great stories of the season," said UCLA head coach John Savage. "He has heavy conviction towards pitches, his work ethic is unmatched, he's a great role model for a lot of our younger pitchers in perseverance, toughness, and pitch-making. I can't say enough for Jack, I'm so happy for him."
The Bruins finish off their series with the Huskies on Sunday afternoon at 12:00 p.m. in the final regular season home game of 2019. The team's three seniors โ Hadley, Pries, and Jake Hirabayashi โ will be honored in a pre-game ceremony.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Ralston, Jack (10-0)
L: Jones, Jordan (4-5)
Base Running:
HBP: Baird, Ben 1
Batting:
2B: McLain, Matt 1
3B: Mitchell, Garrett 1
HR: Toglia, Michael 1
RBI: Mitchell, Garrett 1 ; Kreidler, Ryan 1 ; Toglia, Michael 1 ; Stronach, Jack 1
SF: Kreidler, Ryan 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Mitchell, Garrett 1 ; Toglia, Michael 2 ; McLain, Matt 1
SB: Mitchell, Garrett 1
HBP: Mitchell, Garrett 1
