This post was updated March 14 at 7:45 p.m.
The Bruins could not overcome their crosstown rivals Sunday and dropped their first series of the season.
After falling in the first game of the series 7-4 on Friday, UCLA baseball (10-6, 1-2 Pac-12) came out Saturday and evened the series with an 11-2 win over USC (11-3, 2-1). The Bruins could not come away with a series victory, however, as they fell 6-3 in the rubber match Sunday.
In Saturday’s contest, UCLA was led by junior third baseman Michael Curialle, who notched three hits and three RBIs – with the latter marking a season high.
Coach John Savage said he was impressed with the way Curialle has improved as the season has gone on, but that the junior still has room to grow.
“At the end of the day, we need him to step up,” Savage said. “It’s all about seeing the ball, getting good counts, using the middle of the field and putting good swings on pitches. At times he’s doing that, but I’m not sure he’s doing that all the time.”
The Bruins sent Max Rajcic to the mound for the start Saturday, with the sophomore right-hander going five innings without giving up an earned run. The blue and gold used a trio of pitchers in relief, including freshman left-hander Ethan Flanagan, who delivered 2.2 innings of shutout ball while allowing two hits.
[Related: Baseball’s winning streak ends with loss to USC in 1st matchup of home series]
However, with a chance to win the series, UCLA fell to USC on Sunday in front of a sold-out crowd at Jackie Robinson Stadium.
A week after getting the win against the top-ranked team in the country, redshirt sophomore right-hander Kelly Austin gave up a season high in runs in the first inning. The Trojans took an early 5-0 lead in the opening frame capped off by a two-run home run by catcher Garret Guillemette.
Savage said USC came out ready to hit Sunday and attacked Austin early.
“They jumped on him,” Savage said. “He made some mistakes, clearly. They put up five (runs) before you were really able to sit down.”
After seeing its first two innings end in double plays, UCLA got on the board in the third inning off an RBI ground out from graduate student left fielder Kenny Oyama that scored sophomore right fielder JonJon Vaughns.
After the first inning, Austin settled down to get seven of the next eight batters out, but after giving up a double with two outs in the fourth inning, his day came to an end. Coming in to replace him was freshman right-hander Thatcher Hurd – the reigning National Pitcher of the Week – who came into the series ranking third nationally with 17.5 strikeouts per nine innings.
Hurd finished his day with 4.1 innings pitched and gave up no earned runs and four hits. Savage said Hurd has come a long way this season, showing development in a lot of different ways.
“He’s an elite guy,” Savage said. “He’s worked really hard on his mental game. He’s worked really hard on his delivery. He’s worked really hard on his pitches, and he’s off to a pretty good start in his career.”
After USC tacked on another run in the fifth, UCLA returned with a run of its own in the bottom half of the frame to make the score 6-2. The run came off the bat of freshman center fielder Malakhi Knight, who came a couple feet away from hitting his second collegiate home run – but Trojan center fielder Rhylan Thomas made a catch, crashing into the wall.
Entering the contest, UCLA catchers had a combined .157 batting average, but junior catcher Darius Perry notched a career-high two hits in the contest. Perry said it felt good to supply the offense with an extra boost in the ninth spot.
“If I can get the stick going, it will definitely have an impact,” Perry said. “Flip it over to the top half (of the lineup) of Kenny and (graduate student first baseman Jake) Palmer so they can help us from there.”
UCLA was able to tack on another run in the eighth inning after Palmer drove a double into the left-center gap to score Oyama. The Bruins could not add on any more in the ninth, giving the blue and gold its first series loss of the year.
Perry said the Bruins just need to take it slow as they look ahead to the rest of their season.
“We just need to take things one day at a time,” Perry said.
UCLA will return to action Friday when it takes on Harvard in a three-game series.
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