The key to scoring runs is getting on base.
And the Bruins safely reached 26 times Tuesday with eight hits, three hit by pitches and 15 walks – their most bases on balls since at least 2015.
Crossing home plate over 10 times for the third consecutive game, UCLA baseball (4-0) swamped BYU (2-3) by a score of 15-4 at Jackie Robinson Stadium. Following Tuesday’s affair, the Bruins have walked more than they’ve struck out this season and own a .511 OBP.
“This team has a really good feel for the strike zone, which is a very good characteristic of any good team,” said coach John Savage. “Swing at strikes and take balls. …That’s what good hitters do. You get a bunch of good hitters together, then they start passing the baton a little bit, and it becomes contagious.”
The Cougars used seven pitchers during the ballgame, but not a single one went without issuing a walk. Right-hander Ziegen Farley had the worst of it, giving up four free passes in just 0.2 innings pitched.
Roch Cholowsky got the scoring started in the bottom of the first. The sophomore shortstop doubled to right center and came around to score the game’s first run after a pair of wild pitches. Cholowsky added the Bruins’ second run in the third, singling to right center and driving home sophomore left fielder Dean West.
However, with UCLA leading by just one run after the fourth, BYU scored three off Michael Barnett in his first inning of the season. The junior right-hander plunked the leadoff man in the fifth before the Cougars notched back-to-back singles – the latter being a swinging bunt to third – to tie the game. Barnett ended the inning with his first strikeout of 2025, getting right fielder Bryker Hurdsman swinging – but not before the Cougars took a 4-2 lead.
The Bruins scored four runs in the sixth off six walks and a hit by pitch to get back in the driver’s seat and blew the dam open with an eight-run seventh inning – capitalized by redshirt senior AJ Salgado’s grand slam to right field off right-hander Ryan Reynolds, extending the lead to 10.
Wylan Moss, who struck out five over 1.2 innings in his collegiate debut Saturday, made his first start with the Bruins against the Cougars. The freshman right-hander punched out six across four innings, allowing a hit, two walks and an unearned run.
“It was good to get my feet wet over the weekend,” Moss said. “I just came into this one little more relaxed with some confidence, just ready to go.”
Barnett rebounded to pitch 2.1 shutout innings the rest of the way, striking out four more before back-to-back singles in the eighth led to Savage pulling the right-hander from the game.
“I thought Barnett was actually pretty good,” Savage said. “A ground ball pitcher is going to give up hits, and sometimes, those ground balls go through. … That’s what kind of happened the first inning is two ground balls went through that could be double plays.”
Right-handers sophomore Justin Lee and freshman CJ Bott combined for the final 1.2 innings Tuesday, striking out two and allowing just a single hit.
After an undefeated start to the season, UCLA will head to the Kleberg Bank Classic in Corpus Christi, Texas, beginning Friday.
“It’s been good for us, but this group is still hungry,” said junior outfielder Jarrod Hocking, who went 2-for-4 with a walk against BYU. “We’re happy to be 4-0, but we’re not satisfied with it.”
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