Auburn Up Big on UCLA Baseball, Weather Delay Sends Bruins to Monday
The Tigers were on the verge of advancing to Super Regionals and marking an end to the Bruins' season, but Mother Nature had other plans.
UCLA baseball (40-23, 19-11 Pac-12) was losing 9-0 to No. 14 seed Auburn (39-19, 16-13 SEC) in the bottom of the sixth inning Sunday night when a lightning delay was put into effect. An hour later, play was officially suspended until Monday, with a start time of 12 p.m. announced not long after.
The Bruins are on the verge of elimination, having lost their opener to Florida State on Friday before crawling out of the losers' bracket over the remainder of the weekend. The Tigers, on the other hand, are 11 outs away from sweeping their way through the Auburn Regional and advancing to the NCAA Super Regionals.
The contest that was called off Sunday night was the second game UCLA played on Sunday, as they needed to fend off Florida State in a rematch to avoid elimination. That win sent the Bruins to their fourth-consecutive Regional Final, although they have only made it to one Super Regional since winning the College World Series in 2013.
UCLA is not currently on track to break that trend Monday, considering the position they found themselves in when the lightning interrupted play late Sunday night.
The game's opening pitch was already delayed nearly two hours due to inclement weather earlier in the evening, and when the game did eventually begin, Auburn wasted no time in building a quick lead.
Freshman right-hander James Hepp drew the start for the Bruins, just over one month removed from his collegiate debut and still only boasting a 9.00 ERA in 6.0 career innings. Hepp didn't even get to add another out to that innings pitched total, as he was chased off the mound before retiring one batter.
Hepp hit the first man he met, and he allowed an RBI single two batters later. After a walk loaded the bases, coach John Savage gave him the hook, and he was charged with another earned run when senior left-hander Daniel Colwell gave up a sac fly.
Colwell kept the Tigers in check for the next few frames, giving the Bruins a chance to battle back early. Freshman shortstop Cody Schrier's leadoff double in the first was wasted, though, with the next three Bruins striking out.
Two more strikeouts in the second and another in the third left UCLA scoreless while Colwell worked himself out of a bases-loaded jam in the second and retired the side in the third. Colwell ran out of steam in the fourth, walking two of the first three batters he faced before getting yanked in favor of freshman right-hander Luke Jewett.
Jewett didn't fare much better, pegging one batter to load the bases and set up a two-RBI single up the middle that doubled the deficit.
The freshman gave up a leadoff homer in the fifth, then walked and hit a batter to start off the sixth, all while the Bruins' offense stayed silent. Junior left-hander Jake Saum relieved Jewett only to allow a pair of two-RBI doubles, and the lead ballooned to nine.
Graduate first baseman Jake Palmer struck out swinging to bring sophomore right fielder JonJon Vaughns to the plate, and that's when lightning struck and the game went into limbo.
UCLA came back from down nine runs in the bottom of the ninth to force extra innings and beat Oregon State at the Pac-12 tournament a week ago, and the Beavers are the No. 3 overall seed in the NCAA tournament. Without much traction at the plate, though, it would take a massive shift over the next 14 hours for the Bruins to do the same to the Tigers on their home field and force a second game Monday night.
Schrier is the only UCLA player with a hit, as the rest of the team is a combined 0-for-16.
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