Cody Schrier Walks It Off, Helps UCLA Baseball Sweep Washington State

Kenny Oyama stepped as much as the plate with two down, a person on second and an opportunity to stroll issues off within the Bruins’ dwelling finale.

However earlier than he may even deliver the bat up previous his shoulder, the Cougars deliberately walked the graduate outfielder.

As a substitute, it was freshman shortstop Cody Schrier who got here as much as the dish, boasting a .345 batting common since April 2 coming into Sunday. After taking place within the rely 0-2, the younger infielder slapped a base hit by way of the appropriate aspect that introduced the profitable run dwelling.

“After they deliberately walked Kenny, I used to be kinda shocked,” Schrier stated. “I wished to stand up there actually dangerous, I used to be hitting balls good all weekend, nothing was actually falling. So I assumed it was about time that one thing squeezed by way of.”

That walk-off single lifted No. 23 UCLA baseball (33-18, 17-10 Pac-12) to an 8-7 victory over Washington State (23-26, 9-18), finishing the collection sweep within the course of. It marked the Bruins’ fourth sweep of the season and improved the workforce’s dwelling file to 13-3 since March 20, along with serving as a significant turnaround from the five-game shedding streak they have been on heading into the weekend.

The tip end result got here regardless of all of the late-game dramatics, which appeared to be far-fetched within the early components of the competition. UCLA put up a four-spot to open the sport, which is strictly what they did en path to 4-0 and 10-1 wins on Friday and Saturday, respectively.

Schrier slapped a leadoff double down the left subject line, scoring a number of at-bats in a while a single by junior proper fielder Michael Curialle. Sophomore third baseman Kyle Karros launched a three-run dwelling run to left with one down, making it 4-0 UCLA after one inning.

Washington State designated hitter Jacob McKeon answered with a homer of his personal within the second, however nobody was aboard, so it did the minimal quantity of injury. The Bruins bought that run proper again within the backside of the second anyhow, stringing collectively a number of hits in a row earlier than graduate first baseman Jake Palmer bought an RBI single.

The offense stalled for a number of frames till one other few singles and walks led to sophomore designated hitter Daylen Reyes’ personal RBI single within the fifth.

All of the whereas, redshirt sophomore right-hander Kelly Austin was making fast work of Washington State’s batters. Austin made it by way of 5.0 innings having allowed simply the one run that got here off McKeon’s homer, retiring 15 of the opposite 17 males he confronted.

The Bruins’ Sunday starter had thrown simply 63 pitches by way of 5 frames, however coach John Savage determined to tug the plug on him heading into what turned out to be a pivotal sixth inning.

“It is the third time by way of, and now we have quite a lot of numbers in entrance of us and so forth,” Savage stated. “We felt it was the appropriate transfer. I believe we might in all probability make that transfer 99% of the time – It clearly backfired.”

Savage handed issues off to junior right-hander Charles Harrison, and the lengthy reliever instantly discovered himself in hassle. A leadoff single, adopted by a Harrison throwing error, led to an RBI single by first baseman Jack Smith.

Savage yanked Harrison after he walked the bases loaded the very subsequent batter, however senior left-hander Daniel Colwell gave up one other RBI single to the primary batter he confronted. After lastly getting the primary out of the inning, Colwell hit a batter to juice the bases but once more, main Savage to usher in freshman right-hander Luke Jewett.

Jewett induced a grounder to get the second out, however one other run got here round to attain on the play. The tying run scored only a few pitches later, when junior catcher Darius Perry let one get away from him and the runner on third sprinted dwelling.

A examine swing helped the Cougars draw one other stroll, and Savage was compelled to show to his fourth pitcher of the sixth inning. Junior left-hander Josh Hahn allowed a go-ahead RBI single to proper, however Curialle bought the Bruins out of the body by gunning down the second man attempting to attain.

It didn’t take lengthy for UCLA to erase that deficit, as Curialle knocked a two-out, RBI single to proper to tie it again up once more. Freshman second baseman Ethan Gourson had an opportunity to provide his workforce the lead once more, however he struck out and stranded two runners to maintain it knotted at 7-7 headed into the seventh.

The Bruins bought their first two males on within the eighth and wound up loading the bases, however once more stranded all of them and went into the ninth nonetheless tied up.

Schrier was capable of stroll issues off within the ninth because of freshman right-hander Alonzo Tredwell, who pitched three scoreless innings to shut the door on the Cougars. Washington State went down 1-2-3 in each the seventh and ninth innings because of Tredwell’s late-game heroics that helped him enhance his season ERA to 1.89.

Tredwell allowed a leadoff double within the eighth, however struck out the subsequent two males up earlier than escaping the inning on a floor ball.

“Clearly, a leadoff double is not ideally suited, however we might like to depart individuals the place they’re,” Tredwell stated. “So leadoff double, my mindset was simply to maintain him on second base, do not let him rating.”

UCLA will wrap up its common season on the street in opposition to Oregon State, with the collection set to get underway on Thursday. The primary-ever Pac-12 match will begin the next week, and the Bruins may lock up the highest seed within the bracket by sweeping the Beavers in Corvallis.

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