LOS ANGELES – Sophomore shortstop Cody Schrier hit a pair of home runs to lead No. 12 UCLA to a 10-3 win over Tulane on Friday night at Jackie Robinson Stadium in the first game of the 2023 Southern California College Baseball Classic.
Schrier was at the heart of a pair of multi-run, go-ahead rallies for the Bruins (7-2), leading off the bottom of the first with a solo shot to left before smashing a three-run bomb in the fifth inning to put UCLA ahead for good.
It was the first multi-homer game of Schrier's career. It also pulled him into a tie for the team lead with three homers on the season, a year after leading the Bruins with nine roundtrippers.
Besides Schrier's 3-4, four-RBI night, UCLA also received strong offensive performances from sophomore second baseman Duce Gourson (2-5, two runs), junior left fielder Carson Yates (1-2, two RBIs), and junior first baseman Daylen Reyes (1-3, RBI triple).
Schrier put the Bruins ahead early, pouncing on the second pitch of the bottom of the first and sending it over the wall in left-center for his first home run of the night. The Bruins ultimately added a second run in that inning, as Gourson doubled and later scored on a passed ball.
Tulane (1-9) put up a one in both the third and fourth innings to tie the game up, but UCLA re-grabbed the lead with a four-spot in the bottom of the fifth.
Schrier had by far the biggest swing of that rally, crushing a full-count change-up from Tulane left-hander starter Dylan Carmouche for a three-run homer to left. The Bruins kept rallying after the mammoth home run, with a Gourson single and Kyle Karros double setting up a sac fly from Carson Yates to cap the four-spot.
The Bruins tacked on insurance with a three-spot in the seventh, highlighted by a run-scoring three-bagger from Reyes. Yates and sophomore center fielder Malakhi Knight also contributed RBI knocks.
Junior right-hander Jake Brooks picked up the win for UCLA to move to 2-1 on the year, allowing just four hits and one earned run over six-plus innings. He retired the first seven batters of the game in a row, and ended his outing with a trio of 1-2-3 frames.
Right-handers Cody Delvecchio, Charles Harrison, and Caedon Kottinger limited the Green Wave to one run over the final three innings of the game.
Delvecchio and Harrison were especially impressive out of the bullpen. Delvecchio retired all three batters he faced in the seventh inning, and Harrison allowed just a two-out walk in the eighth.
UCLA continues the Southern California College Baseball Classic on Saturday afternoon, hosting Sacramento State at 2:00 p.m.