The Bruins endured their worst defeat in nearly four years to their Northern California conference foe.
No. 18 UCLA baseball (31-17, 14-11 Pac-12) watched as California (27-23, 13-12) handed it a 14-2 defeat Friday night at Jackie Robinson Stadium, aided by four home runs and 17 total hits for the Golden Bears. The Bruins had not suffered a loss to this degree since a 19-4 loss to Arizona in March 2017, and had not lost by more than six runs in 2021.
“Tonight was pretty embarrassing,” said redshirt senior left fielder Kyle Cuellar. “It was embarrassing for everyone involved. It was just no fun, so whenever you lose like this, like we did tonight, you really just got to come back out with your head on fire and want to beat someone tomorrow and not let that happen again.”
Third baseman Quentin Selma kicked off the Bears’ 14-run night, knocking a base hit to center field to bring home a runner who had walked and stole second – one of four total stolen bases for California – earlier in the frame. The Bruins responded with a solo home run from Cuellar – his second this season and fifth in five years at UCLA – to tie up the score at one apiece through one inning.
Cal reclaimed the lead in the following frame with a two-run shot to right, amassing a 3-1 advantage it would not forfeit for the remainder of the contest. The Bears added on another pair of runs in the third with a double and a single, while junior shortstop Mikey Perez went deep in the bottom of the frame for his team-high-tying ninth home run of the season.
Senior right-hander Zach Pettway kept California off the scoreboard for the first time all evening in the fourth inning. Friday marked Pettway’s second consecutive outing having allowed seven earned runs.
The quiet fourth frame proved to be an outlier for the Bears, who picked up two runs in the fifth on a solo home run from Selma and an RBI double from catcher Cole Elvis to bring the score to 7-2.
The sixth inning saw the Bears put up a five-spot via a home run, a pair of RBI singles and a sacrifice fly. California had its way with both junior left-hander Daniel Colwell and junior right-hander Jack Filby, recording four and three runs off the UCLA arms, respectively, through the sixth and part of the seventh innings.
“They jumped all over our pitching,” said coach John Savage. “It was just mistake pitching. You got to give (Cal) a lot of credit. They’re a very capable team, and they clearly showed that tonight, and they hit the ball all over the ballpark.”
Keeping UCLA at bay for the majority of the game was right-hander Josh White, who tossed six innings of two-run ball and allowed only four hits while striking out 10 batters.
“He’s good – we knew he was good,” Savage said. “He’s got a good curveball, he’s got plenty of fastball. I like him, (he’s) competitive. 10 strikeouts, six innings, he’s impressive. He threw the ball very well.”
First baseman Nathan Martorella capped off the scoring for the Bears with a two-run shot to straightaway center off Filby in the seventh.
Freshman right-hander Jake Brooks was the only Bruin to record an out without allowing a run, conceding only two hits over a career-high three innings of work to close out the game for UCLA.
“I was just trying to keep (the deficit) at 12 runs and not make it any worse, trying to get my team I guess some hope to come back,” Brooks said. “I just feel like, as the Bruin pitchers, our goal is to put up zeros and so that was my main objective, no matter what the score was, just to put up zeros.”
While UCLA was unable to stage a comeback, it will have an opportunity at redemption in the second game of the series against California, which will begin at 2 p.m. on Saturday.
