UCLA Baseball Falls to Florida State in NCAA Regional Opener
Despite tightening things up in the middle chunk of the contest, the Bruins could not overcome the Seminoles to start regional action with a victory.
No. 2 seed UCLA baseball (38-22, 19-11 Pac-12) sent their Friday starter, sophomore righty Max Rajcic, out for their Auburn Regional opener against No. 3 seed Florida State (37-19, 16-13 ACC), but neither the Bruins' righty nor their offense could help claim a Friday morning win. Dropping the game by a score of 5-3, UCLA will now move into the losers' bracket and has to win four games in a row in order to advance to Super Regionals.
Rajcic took the mound for the Bruins after not appearing in the Pac-12 Tournament due to an oblique injury. The closer-turned-starter, who made the All-Pac-12 Team, was at least able to work through 6.0 innings to keep UCLA within striking distance, but he allowed four runs – his second-most in a single outing this season.
By the time the Seminoles struck for a pair of runs on a two-RBI triple in the top of the fifth – adding onto the one they had earned with two outs in the first – the Bruins were down 3-0 with only one hit against Florida State lefty Parker Messick – a leadoff single from freshman shortstop Cody Schrier in the first.
Sophomore center fielder Carson Yates, however, changed the contest with UCLA’s second hit. A slider tumbled into the middle of the strike zone and the Bruins’ right-handed slugger attacked the pitch, hitting it over the left-field wall as it slammed against the scoreboard.
The solo shot was Yates’ sixth home run of the campaign and caused the blue and gold to generate some momentum.
Later in the frame, with two outs, graduate first baseman Jake Palmer laced a line drive single into left field and scored graduate left fielder Kenny Oyama from second to cut the Florida State lead to one.
A run in the top half of the sixth erased that progress, though, and the Seminoles were back to having a two-run advantage. And as Florida State dipped into the bullpen, UCLA’s bats were able to get more run-scoring opportunities.
The Bruins loaded the bases with three walks in the sixth, but could not bring a single run across. In the bottom of the eighth, freshman second baseman Ethan Gourson was hit by a pitch and sophomore Kyle Karros singled into left before an out was recorded. After freshman designated hitter Daylen Reyes sacrifice bunted both runners over, Gourson scored on a wild pitch to make the score 4-3 in favor of the Seminoles.
However, with Karros on third, Yates lined out to shortstop and halted the rally as the game headed to the ninth.
Freshman right-hander Alonzo Tredwell entered to try and keep the deficit at one, but a no-doubt solo home run off the bat of Florida State first baseman Alex Toral replenished the two-run advantage.
In the Bruins' final at-bats, Palmer reached on a throwing error with two down to bring the tying run back to the plate, only for a grounder to end the game the very next at-bat. UCLA finished the day 2-for-13 with runners on and 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position, stranding nine men on base.
Compared to the 56 runs scored across the Pac-12 tournament, the Bruins could only scratch across three on Friday. They did only score one run in their first game of that weekend tournament, though, before going on to average 13.8 over their next four.
UCLA will face the loser of Friday's game between Auburn and Southeastern Louisiana in an elimination game Saturday at 10 a.m. PST.
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