By The Dirtbags were one out away from beating No. 22 UCLA, what could have been the final at-bat instead led to a game-tying shot to center field, four innings later it was UCLA walking away with a 4-3 extra innings victory.
“I think we took a lot of positives out of that as much as you can with a loss, but you know the fact that we were down to the last out and had them beat,” head coach Eric Valenzuela said.
For the better part of nine innings, the Dirtbags were in control pitching around traffic during what was a bullpen game and finding production at the plate from the team’s most familiar faces.
Jake Rons was the first reliever from the Dirtbags' bullpen against the Bruins. He registered two scoreless innings before being pulled in the fifth inning Photo credit: Armando jacobo
Junior’s Jonathon Long and Connor Burns continued to swing the bat well finishing up with multi-hit performances alongside a double and RBI each. Long, a first baseman and reigning National Player of the Week, was brought in to score in the 1st inning after Burns’s hit got through the left side of the infield.
On defense, Burns has constantly excelled and proved again why he is one of the best backstops in the nation executing a strike them-out throw them out to close the top of the 3rd and keep the score knotted at 1-1.
After taking a 3-1 lead in the fifth inning and holding it until the closing stages of the ninth it was the Dirtbag’s offense that ultimately fell silent.
Bruins pitchers kept LBSU off the scoreboard for eight innings in a row before mustering a sac fly in the top of the 13th that would become the winning run.
“Unfortunately their guy (Luke Jewett) was pretty good at the end right there,” Valenzuela said. “Which I’m surprised they let him go that long just because they have conference, you know, they play in two days.”
Jewett, a sophomore right-hander for UCLA, has pitched 18.1 innings this season and threw five scoreless frames against the Dirtbags to close out Tuesday night’s contest.
The Bruins found themselves with the bases loaded on three separate occasions, but could only score two runs, none more important than that sac-fly in the 13th inning after a single, an intentional walk and another single positioned UCLA with the winning scorer just 90 feet away with one out.
With the game being an out-of-conference matchup Valenzuela looked to some players who haven’t seen the field as much and strayed away from some of his arms that will likely be used this weekend on the road against UCI.
“We’re trying to get guys working,” Valenzuela said. “And we’re still trying to find ourselves on the mound a little bit, but I think we got some really good pieces. So they did a good job last night.”
