UCLA
37-21
California
29-27
UCLA Rallies to Defeat Cal, 9-7
May 28, 2022 | Baseball
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. โ No. 3 seed UCLA rallied late to record a 9-7 win over California in 10 innings on Friday night at Scottsdale Stadium as part of the inaugural Pac-12 Baseball Tournament.
With the win, the Bruins (37-21) will now face No. 2 seed Oregon State in the divisional final on Saturday. UCLA needs to defeat the Beavers twice to reach Sunday's Championship Game.
Cal (29-27) was eliminated from tourney play.
The two teams went back and forth in the early innings, resulting in a 7-5 lead for Cal after four innings. The game settled down after that, but the Bruins managed to rally for a pair in the eighth to send the game into extras, and then put up another two-spot in the tenth to finish off the comeback result.
Each starter had at least one hit for the Bruins, who totaled 15 knocks as a team. Particular standouts included freshman shortstop Ethan Gourson (2-4, two walks, team-high three RBIs), graduate first baseman Jake Palmer (2-4, three runs, two RBIs), and junior right fielder Michael Curialle (3-5, two RBIs).
The Bruin bullpen allowed for the comeback possibility with a lockdown performance down the stretch, as Jake Saum, Daniel Colwell, and Luke Jewett combined to allow just three hits and no earned runs over 6 2/3 innings.
Colwell was especially impressive, retiring all 10 batters he faced before making way for Jewett with one out in the eighth. Jewett allowed just a pair of singles from then until the end of the game.
Palmer, Curialle, and Gourson were all instrumental in UCLA's late-game rallies.
In the eighth, Palmer drilled a liner into the left-center gap for a double that scored JonJon Vaughns from first base and brought the Bruins within one. After a sac bunt got Palmer to third, Curialle reached out and poked an outside pitch over the drawn-in shortstop's head for a game-tying single.
Then in the tenth, Palmer led off the frame with a bad-hop single and once again moved up on a sac bunt. After a walk to Curialle, Gourson ripped an 0-1 change-up into center field to plate Palmer for the go-ahead and game-winning run. Kyle Karros followed that up by smashing a liner into right to bring in another run and close the game's scoring.
Gourson was at the center of UCLA's biggest rally of the early innings as well, scorching a liner that rolled all the way to the wall in left-center for a two-run triple as part of a three-run fourth inning that briefly gave the Bruins a 5-3 advantage.
Vaughns, making his first start since May 8, was a standout on both sides of the ball. On offense, he went 2-3 with a walk and a sac bunt. Defensively, he made possibly the play of the tournament in the fifth inning, making an over-the-shoulder catch at the fence in left field before uncorking a two-hop laser from the warning track to first base that nearly doubled off a runner.
HOW ON EARTH DID HE CATCH THIS? ??
— UCLA Baseball (@UCLABaseball) May 28, 2022
?? | Pac-12 Networks
?? | https://t.co/5C3FKfSbbO
?? | https://t.co/Kl8srdE6Ne#GoBruins | @jonjonvaughns04 pic.twitter.com/0BbA2xazi8
Game one on Saturday between the Bruins and Beavers is set to begin at approximately 1:00 p.m. (the game will begin 45 minutes after the conclusion of the 9:00 a.m. contest between Stanford and Arizona). Should the Bruins win that contest, they will face OSU again on Saturday night (time TBD), with the winner advancing to the Championship Game.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Jewett, Luke (3-1)
L: Sam Stoutenborough (2-4)
Batting:
2B: Palmer, Jake 1 ; Curialle, Michael 1
3B: Gourson, Duce 1
RBI: Palmer, Jake 2 ; Curialle, Michael 2 ; Gourson, Duce 3 ; Karros, Kyle 1 ; Perry, Darius 1
SH: Reyes, Daylen 2 ; Moberg, Jake 1 ; Vaughns, JonJon 1
SF: Curialle, Michael 1 ; Perry, Darius 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Palmer, Jake 3 ; Curialle, Michael 2 ; Oyama, Kenny 1 ; Yates, Carson 1 ; Vaughns, JonJon 2
HBP: Palmer, Jake 2
Batting:
2B: Rodney Green Jr. 1
HR: Hance Smith 1
RBI: Nathan Martorella 1 ; Dylan Beavers 1 ; Hance Smith 2 ; Nathan Manning 2 ; Dom Souto 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Nathan Martorella 1 ; Hance Smith 1 ; Keshawn Ogans 1 ; Rodney Green Jr. 2 ; Cole Elvis 1 ; Nathan Manning 1
