UCLA
11-15
Loyola Marymount
12-17
Freshmen Shine in 4-1 Midweek Win at LMU
April 02, 2024 | Baseball
LOS ANGELES โ The UCLA baseball team logged a 4-1 midweek win over LMU on Tuesday night at Page Stadium, with a number of freshman standouts contributing to the victory.
On the mound, UCLA's (11-15) frosh trio of Luke Rodriguez, Justin Lee, and Cal Randall combined to limit the Lions (12-16) to one run on six hits over 7 1/3 innings. Graduate closer Rashad Ruff got the final five outs of the contest to lock down his sixth save of the year.
Offensively, freshmen Mulivai Levu (2-4, two RBIs) and Roch Cholowsky (2-4, RBI) accounted for every Bruin RBI.
With the win, the Bruins improved to 4-2 this season in midweek competitions. Tuesday's victory was also UCLA's first this season away from Jackie Robinson Stadium.
The Bruins never trailed in the contest, opening the scoring and ultimately going ahead for good with a two-run rally in the fourth. The teams traded ones in the sixth, and then UCLA closed the scoring with another single run in the eighth.
Junior second baseman Duce Gourson sparked the Bruins' go-ahead rally in the fourth, reaching after a comebacker hit off the thigh of LMU pitcher Jake Geis for a one-out single. Gourson soon moved to third after a pair of Geis offerings reached the backstop, which allowed him to come across on an infield single from Levu.
The Bruins continued to rally after Levu's score-opening knock, as senior right fielder JonJon Vaughns got Levu to third with a shift-beating ground-single. Levu would come across moments later on another wild pitch.
Levu would make it a 3-0 game two frames later, bouncing a chopper down the first-base line and into the right-field corner for an RBI triple, plating Gourson who had reached on a leadoff walk.
LMU's only run of the day came at the expense of Justin Lee. Even then, Lee was a bit unlucky to get charged with the run against, though it was technically an earned run, as LMU three-hitter Benny Casillas reached on a routine grounder that was fielded too slowly before coming across later in the inning on an RBI base hit from Devin Ornelas.
At the end of the day, Lee picked up his first-collegiate win while turning in the best outing yet of his young career. He finished with five strikeouts and three hits against โ all singles โ over a career-high 3 1/3 innings.
The other two freshman pitchers used by UCLA on Tuesday were equally as effective.
Starter Luke Rodriguez fanned four over 2 1/3 scoreless innings, allowing just two singles, before handing off to Lee in the third.
Randall came on in relief of Lee in the sixth inning, making his collegiate debut. He went on to retire the first five batters he faced, and ultimately struck out three while allowing just one hit over 1 2/3 scoreless innings.
At the back end of the game, Ruff went five-up, five-down to nail down the win.
UCLA returns to action this weekend, hosting league rival Oregon for a three-game Pac-12 series starting on Friday night at 7 p.m. PT. The entire weekend set will be televised on the Pac-12 Networks.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Lee, Justin (1-0)
L: Jake Geis (0-1)
S: Ruff, Rashad (6)
Batting:
3B: Levu, Mulivai 1
RBI: Levu, Mulivai 2 ; Cholowsky, Roch 1
SH: Brennan, Payton 1 ; Schrier, Cody 1 ; Salgado, AJ 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Gourson, Duce 2 ; Levu, Mulivai 2
SB: Salgado, AJ 1
HBP: Knight, Malakhi 1
Batting:
RBI: Devan Ornelas 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Benny Casillas 1
SB: Benny Casillas 1
PO: Devan Ornelas 1
