After winning nine of their past 10 games, the Bruins suffered their worst loss of the season.
Coming off three straight Pac-12 series victories, No. 12 UCLA baseball (23-10, 8-5 Pac-12) opened its series against No. 22 Stanford (19-10, 10-6) with a 9-1 defeat Thursday night at Jackie Robinson Stadium. The eight-run margin of defeat represents the worst loss for the blue and gold since May 2021, when it fell to California 14-2.
Coach John Savage said Thursday’s game served as a wake-up call for the Bruins on the expectations that come with being in the Pac-12.
“We just saw the level of competitiveness it takes to be in the upper echelon of this conference,” Savage said. “We just need to understand that they played better than we did in all things.”
For the second straight game, the Bruins struck first, taking a 1-0 lead in the opening inning when sophomore third baseman Kyle Karros hit a sacrifice fly to score graduate student first baseman Jake Palmer for UCLA’s only run of the game.
Stanford took the lead in the top of the third inning when first baseman Carter Graham launched a three-run homer – his ninth home run of the year – to give the Cardinal a two-run advantage. The Bruins threatened a comeback by loading the bases with one out in the bottom half of the frame but could not bring anyone home.
Sophomore Jake Brooks took the mound for the Bruins and finished his night with 6.1 innings pitched while giving up nine hits and six runs. The right-hander’s start marked his second in a row of giving up five runs or more after not allowing more than four runs in his first seven starts.
Savage said he liked how Brooks pitched against an offense as good as Stanford’s.
“I thought Jake was good (Thursday),” Savage said. “He made a mistake on that three-run homer. Other than that, I liked him. He made pitches, and it wasn’t perfect, but I liked his competitiveness.”
Right-hander Charles Harrison came in to relieve Brooks with a runner on in the seventh inning, but the junior surrendered a single followed by a three-run shot to right by Cardinal right fielder Braden Montgomery to push Stanford’s lead to 8-1.
Despite the loss, graduate student left fielder Kenny Oyama said the Bruins’ key to success is to continue to play the way they have played all season long.
“We just got to keep competing,” Oyama said. “We didn’t compete at the level that we needed to (Thursday). We just need to play our style of baseball, and we’ll be fine.”
UCLA finished the night with four hits – the lowest it has tallied since March 19, when it garnered one hit against Harvard.
Palmer said the blue and gold know what it is capable of at the plate.
“Last couple of weeks we’ve been winning pitches, especially offensively, and grinding guys out,” Palmer said. “We did a decent job with the starter, but we tapered off, and they kept going.”
Savage said the team will take this experience and grow from it.
“It’s a good learning night, and we need to respond. There’s a lot of baseball left,” Savage said.
The Bruins will return to action against the Cardinal on Friday and Saturday at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m., respectively.
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