UCLA Baseball Holds On For Tight Midweek Win Over CSU Fullerton

Michael Curialle drove in the winning run for the Bruins after their bullpen nearly let things slip away against the Titans.

The Bruins went back-and-forth with the Titans, but on a bitterly cold night, one blue and gold batter found the heat.

UCLA baseball (9-4) was on the ropes late into Tuesday night’s contest against Cal State Fullerton (2-9). The Titans had tied the game at four and the Bruins needed to rally to avoid losing their third midweek game of the young season.

Junior third baseman Michael Curialle walked up to the plate in the bottom of the eighth, with two outs and speedy graduate left fielder Kenny Oyama on second. Recognizing a fastball from 6-foot-5 lefty Josh Howitt, the Bruins’ veteran bat attacked the pitch, ripping a line drive into right field for a double to score Oyama and lift UCLA to a 5-4 lead and victory.

“I was just going into the at-bat not trying to do too much,” Curialle said postgame about his game-winning double. “All we really needed was a base hit there and I got a really good pitch to hit. First pitch, put a good swing on it and it worked out in the end.”

That wasn’t the first time the Bruins came through with two down, though, adding several runs earlier on in similar situations.

With two outs in the top of the first, freshman shortstop Cody Schrier stole second after reaching first on a fielding error by Titans second baseman JJ Cruz. Lacing a double into the left-center gap, Curialle scored Schrier from second and gave UCLA a 1-0 advantage.

Tacking on more in the second, graduate outfielders Oyama and Jake Palmer both hit RBI singles with two outs in the frame, increasing the Bruins’ lead to three.

With Oyama’s RBI single, the 5-foot-4 speed threat has now reached base in all but two games this season. As well as stealing third base in the second inning, Oyama now has stolen 13 bases on 13 attempts.

UCLA finished the night 5-for-14 with four RBIs in two-out situations.

“I think the guys are finally settling in,” Oyama said. “Baseball is a weird game, so it just takes a while. We are having Bruin at bats, passing it to the next guy and trying to have quality at bats.”

Reigning Perfect Game/Rawlings National Pitcher of the Week freshman Thatcher Hurd took the mound for the Bruins just two days after tossing 1.2 shutout innings at the Shriner’s Children’s College Classic over the weekend. Hurd was unable to get through the fifth Tuesday, but the Manhattan Beach native flashed what helped him earn national recognition in 4.1 innings of work against the Titans.

Striking out seven of the 18 batters he faced, the righty showcased his fastball, regularly locating the pitch for strikes as well as mixing his breaking pitches with consistency.

Three consecutive singles from the Titans pushed a run across in the bottom of the fourth. That was just the second run Hurd had allowed on the season, bumping his ERA to 1.00.

“I think the expectation of thinking (Hurd) is just going to mow down goes night in night out, it just doesn’t quite work that way,” said coach John Savage. “He wasn’t sharp, but he did have good stuff – 93, 95 (miles per hour) in the first couple innings.”

Redshirt sophomore catcher Tommy Beres launched a line-drive double into left field to lead off the bottom of the sixth and with one out, Palmer drove a double into the right-center gap to score the Bruins’ nine-hole hitter.

Junior left-hander Jake Saum, senior lefty Daniel Colwell and junior right-hander Charles Harrison — none of whom pitched in Houston over the weekend — threw a combined 2.1 innings against CSU Fullerton on Tuesday.

Saum pitched 1.2 scoreless relief after replacing Hurd in the fifth, but Colwell and Harrison’s seventh inning allowed the Titans to re-establish themselves in the contest. Colwell left two runners on base for Harrison following an error from Palmer at first – two at-bats later, the latter threw a wild pitch that brought in a run before allowing an RBI double not long after.

“Danny needed work, Charles needed work, Jake needed work,” Savage said. “We didn’t really take care of the baseball, so their numbers are skewed a little bit. I thought they pitched a little better than how they probably feel right now… It’s hard to go through a weekend and not pitch.”

Savage moved to the bullpen once again and freshman righty Luke Jewett entered to try and hold the lead that had shrunk from three to one in a matter of minutes. However, after inducing a ground ball to third base, Palmer could not catch Curialle’s cross-field throw and another run crossed the plate.

Curialle’s aforementioned game-winning double gave the Bruins the lead back in the bottom of the eighth before freshman left-hander Ethan Flanagan wrapped up the affair in the top of the ninth to earn the victory.

Starting their 2022 midweek schedule with losses to Pepperdine and Omaha, the Bruins have now battled to earn back-to-back victories against Long Beach State and CSU Fullerton – returning to their midweek victory trend from 2019 and 2021.

UCLA returns to action for a weekend series against USC, starting Pac-12 action against their crosstown rivals.

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