UCLA
5-3
Long Beach State
5-1-1
Bruins Bounce Back From Seven Down For 12-11 Walk-Off Win Over LBSU
February 28, 2024 | Baseball
LOS ANGELES โ Sophomore center fielder Payton Brennan plated Jack Holman with an RBI single in the bottom of the tenth to finish off a 12-11 walk-off win over Long Beach State in a wild back-and-forth Wednesday night affair at Jackie Robinson Stadium.
The Bruins (5-3) fell behind 7-0 early, but clawed back to knot it up by the fourth inning. Long Beach State (5-1-1) would go on to score in the sixth, seventh, and eighth innings, but the Bruins went on to match the visitors in the bottom half of each frame.
From there, graduate closer Rashad Ruff put up back-to-back zeroes, setting up the game-winning rally in the tenth. UCLA never led in the game until Brennan's walk-off base hit.
In all, the back-and-forth affair featured a combined 12 errors, 13 walks, and six hit batters, and featured a game time of four hours and 15 minutes.
Brennan and Holman teamed up to provide the game-winning run in the tenth, as Holman started a two-out rally by pulling an 0-1 offering from LBSU closer Mike Villani into right field for a single. The junior DH moved into scoring position a few moments later on a wild pitch, and then came around to score easily as the left-hitting Brennan went the other way for a single to left. Holman likely would have beat it anyway, but the throw from left came in very high and over the head of the LBSU catcher.
Holman (2-3, three runs, two walks) and Brennan were just two of many Bruins who had standout offensive performances in the comeback effort.
Junior second baseman Ethan Gourson fueled the Bruins' early-game comeback with four RBIs over two innings, ultimately finishing with three hits in six at-bats. Redshirt junior right fielder AJ Salgado (2-4, three runs) and freshman catcher Blake Balsz (2-4, RBI) added multi-hit nights.
The Bruins began their charge back from 7-0 down in the third inning, as Gourson launched a two-run homer to right field โ his third roundtripper of the season โ to cap off a Bruin three-spot.
UCLA would rally for four in the very next inning to tie it back up. The first three Bruins of that inning reached to lay the groundwork for that rally, with bunt singles from Holman and Balsz bookending a five-pitch walk to Brennan. Two runs came in despite the next batter, freshman left fielder Dean West, hitting a potential double-play ball, as the turn from the shortstop was thrown away allowing the runners to take an extra base. After two more free passes, on an HBP and a walk, Gourson knotted it back up with a two-run single to right.
The late innings saw the teams trade blows inning-by-inning.
Salgado was at the center of a two-run response in the sixth, tripling off the wall to lead off that frame and later scoring on an error. Balsz came through with his first-career RBI single to make it 10-all in the seventh. Then with the Bruins down to their last strike of the eighth inning, graduate catcher Quintt Landis rolled a grounder through the shift on the right side of the infield to score Toussaint Bythewood from second to make it 11-11.
The contest marked the Bruins' first to reach extra innings this year.
Though the Bruins did commit a season high in errors, there were several defensive plays that made a difference in the one-run win.
Most visually impressive was a full-extension diving catch in the left-center field gap from Brennan to close out the fifth inning. Then in the seventh, Balsz gunned down a runner straying too far off the bag at third for the final out of that inning, stemming that rally at just one run against.
UCLA continues a busy week over the weekend with the 2024 Dodger Stadium College Baseball Classic, hosting Michigan and San Diego at Jackie Robinson Stadium before meeting UC Irvine at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Mar. 3 at Dodger Stadium.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Ruff, Rashad (1-0)
L: Villani, Mike (1-1)
Batting:
2B: Newman, Jr., John 1 ; Charpiot, Connor 1
3B: Ashworth, Kyle 1
HR: Newman, Jr., John 1 ; Lopez, Adrian 1
RBI: Santander, Cole 1 ; Newman, Jr., John 2 ; Hammond, Jack 3 ; Lopez, Adrian 2 ; Briseno, Armando 1
SF: Santander, Cole 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Borgogno, Ty 1 ; Ashworth, Kyle 3 ; Santander, Cole 1 ; Newman, Jr., John 2 ; Charpiot, Connor 1 ; Lopez, Adrian 3
SB: Borgogno, Ty 1 ; Ashworth, Kyle 1 ; Lopez, Adrian 1
CS: Briseno, Armando 1
HBP: Newman, Jr., John 1 ; Lopez, Adrian 1
Batting:
3B: Salgado, AJ 1
HR: Gourson, Duce 1
RBI: West, Dean 1 ; Schrier, Cody 1 ; Gourson, Duce 4 ; Brennan, Payton 1 ; Balsz, Blake 1 ; Landis, Quintt 1
Base Running:
RUNS: West, Dean 2 ; Salgado, AJ 3 ; Schrier, Cody 1 ; Gourson, Duce 1 ; Bythewood, Toussaint 1 ; Holman, Jack 3 ; Brennan, Payton 1
SB: Holman, Jack 1
HBP: Salgado, AJ 1 ; Levu, Mulivai 1 ; Holman, Jack 1 ; Brennan, Payton 1
