UCLA Baseball Loses NCAA Regional Opener, 3-0, to San Francisco
June 3, 2011
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LOS ANGELES - The No. 1-seed UCLA baseball team lost, 3-0, to No. 4-seed San Francisco before a season-high 1,925 fans at Steele Field at Jackie Robinson Stadium in an NCAA Los Angeles Regional game on Friday night.
San Francisco right-hander Kyle Zimmer (6-4) hurled his first career complete game, recording 11 strikeouts and no walks while scattering just four hits against the Bruins (33-23).
UCLA right-hander Gerrit Cole (6-8) absorbed the loss, allowing three runs and 11 hits while tying his season high with 11 strikeouts through 7.1 innings.
San Francisco (33-23) scored one run in each of the third, fifth and eighth innings, before ending a bases-loaded threat by UCLA with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, advancing to the winner's bracket of the NCAA Los Angeles Regional.
The Dons will serve as the designated home team against UC Irvine (40-16) at 6 p.m. Saturday. UCLA will take on Fresno State (40-15) at 2 p.m. that afternoon.
In Friday night's game, Nik Balog provided the offense for San Francisco, going 4-for-4 with two RBI in the Dons' 11-hit attack. After having stranded the bases loaded in the second inning, USF scored one run with an RBI-single by Balog in the top of the third.
The Dons doubled their margin in the fifth inning. Connor Bernatz led off with an RBI single, moved to second base on an ensuing wild pitch on strike three and scored on Balog's single up the middle. In the top of the eighth, Matt Chavez belted a leadoff double to the wall in right-center field and scored on Aritz Garcia's single to right.
UCLA loaded the bases with two outs in the ninth inning on a bunt single from Jeff Gelalich, a hard single on the infield by Dean Espy and a hit-by-pitch against Amaral. Zimmer struck out Cody Regis on a 2-2 count to end the game.
The Bruins return to action at Jackie Robinson Stadium against Fresno State on Saturday at 2 p.m. Fans can purchase tickets through Ticketmaster (tickets.ucla.edu) until 11 a.m. Saturday. The ticket booth at Jackie Robinson Stadium will open at 11:30 a.m. for Saturday's single-game tickets.
Game Notes: UCLA was shut out for the fourth time this season ... the Bruins fell to 3-1 on the season against San Francisco after having outscored the Dons, 8-1, in a three-game series at Jackie Robinson Stadium to open the regular season ... Gerrit Cole surrendered a season-high 11 hits but also logged a season-high-tying 11 strikeouts (also had 11 strikeouts against San Francisco in the Bruins' season opener on Feb. 18) ... Beau Amaral's 15-game hitting streak came to an end ... Friday's loss marked the first time the Bruins dropped the first game of an NCAA Regional since May 22, 1997 - that UCLA ballclub won its next five games to advance to the College World Series (pre-Super Regional era in college baseball).