| Baseball |
|---|
| Minnesota — 4 |
| UCLA — 6 |
Until the sixth inning, the Bruins were trailing the Gophers by two runs—it looked like the Bruins had little life to their bats.
But then, UCLA scored four runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to flip the script and give them the lead in an electric comebacker fashion.
No. 1 UCLA baseball (35-3, 20-0 Big Ten) emerged victorious after taking on the University of Minnesota (22-16, 5-12 Big Ten) at Jackie Robinson Stadium on Saturday, April 18. With this win, UCLA locked down the series against Minnesota and also moved to 20-0 in Big Ten play, a remarkable achievement for the team.
Today was a very unconventional win for the team—the pitching struggled at times and had to pitch through traffic, while the offense only came alive later in the game. Nevertheless, it was a win.
Today’s starter was senior right-handed pitcher Michael Barnett, who pitched to a respectable 4.1 innings, and only allowed two hits, two walks and one earned run.
However, Barnett struggled to keep his pitches within the strike zone, specifically his sweeper and changeup. Barnett sought swing-and-miss on changeups and sweepers that were meant to be down and slightly out of the zone, but the Gophers’ hitters caught onto this approach and took advantage of Barnett’s declining command.
“My command was a little off — I wasn’t getting ahead, but I didn’t let that affect me. I knew that even in some deep counts I could dig in deep … the guys behind me had my back. Their support got me through it.”
Barnett created a jam in the third inning for himself, putting two runners in scoring position by throwing four straight balls for a walk, hitting Minnesota’s Davis Hamilton with a pitch, and then throwing a wild pitch to get those runners on second and third base.
Despite this jam, Barnett was able to get himself out of it by striking out Minnesota’s Jack Spanier and inducing a flyout to end the inning.
When asked about what he learned from his start, Barnett said that “I think the report was kind of that these guys like to ambush, so being a little bit too fine early in the count led to me getting behind in the count a lot … it wasn’t my best stuff, I plan to get ahead in the future.”
When Barnett got out of the jam, the Bruins were still trailing the Gophers. But this changed in the sixth inning, when the Bruins kicked off a four-run rally to take the lead over Minnesota.
The rally was kicked off by a home run to right field on a 0-1 count by redshirt junior right fielder Payton Brennan, who tied the game with this swing. This was the exact momentum that the Bruins needed to take back this game. After the solo home run, the Bruins played some small ball to advance freshman designated hitter Trey Gudoy from first to third base off of a bunt and groundout.
After Gudoy advanced to third, junior shortstop Roch Cholowsky drew a walk to put two runners on, marking the perfect setup for junior first baseman Mulivai Levu. On a 2-2 count, Levu blasted a two-RBI double down the right field line that drove in Cholowsky and Gudoy, giving the Bruins the lead over the Gophers and making it a 4-3 ballgame.
The Bruins added onto this with a single to right center field by junior third baseman Roman Martin, who drove in Levu to make the score 5-3.
This was a much-needed wake-up call for the Bruins, who were finally able to drive runners in after loading the bases in the third inning and failing to bring any of those runners in.
UCLA head coach John Savage commented on the offense in a postgame interview, stating that the offense was better than it was in the game prior, but that the Bruins could have capitalized on more scoring opportunities today: “I thought we played a little better offensively today. We really could have scored more to be honest with you. Bases loaded, we get a pop-up, we get a strikeout, and then we get our flyout in center … but overall, it was a good win against a team that I think is pretty good.”
The Bruins look to put these offensive struggles behind them and close out the series against Minnesota on Sunday, April 19, 12:00 p.m. PST at Jackie Robinson Stadium.
