Baseball Heads to SLC For Pac-12 Series at Utah

UCLA (13-25, 6-15) at Utah (26-13, 11-7)
Friday, April 26, 2024 - 5 p.m. PT
Saturday, April 207, 2024 - 1 p.m. PT
Sunday, April 28, 2024 - 12 p.m. PT
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah (Smith's Ballpark)
Stream: Pac-12.com / Pac-12 Now app
Live Stats

UCLA Opens Road Stretch With Series at Utah    
This weekend, the UCLA (13-25, 6-15 Pac-12) baseball team treks to Salt Lake City for a three-game Pac-12 series at league rival Utah (26-13, 11-7). The series begins on Friday at 5 p.m. PT and continues on Saturday at 1 p.m. PT and Sunday at 12 p.m. PT. All three games will be streamed live by Utah, and can be viewed via Pac-12.com. Fans can also follow along with live stats (StatBroadcast) and X/Twitter updates (@UCLABaseball). 

UCLA Quick Hits    

• UCLA is 13-25 overall on the season
• The Bruins are 4-5 in midweek contests, with wins against Nevada, Long Beach State, UC Santa Barbara, and LMU
• The Bruins are 11-11 so far this season at home
• UCLA is 6-15 in Pac-12 play, taking weekend series against Washington State and USC
• The Bruins enter the contest with a plus-25 walk differential (183 drawn, 158 issued)
• UCLA has an 83% success rate on stolen bases so far this year (34-41)
• Duce Gourson had a 22-game reached-base streak snapped Apr. 9 ... he's reached in 34 of 37 games so far this year
• The Bruins hit a season-high four home runs on Apr. 23 against UC Irvine, including a pair from Roch Cholowsky
• UCLA has started multiple players at all nine defensive positions (plus DH)
• UCLA is coming off a 28-24-1 campaign and a berth into the 2023 Pac-12 Tournament
• It marked the program's 7th consecutive winning season and 15th overall in 19 seasons under HC John Savage
• The Bruins' freshman class was the No. 1-ranked recruit class in the country (as was the junior class)
• Junior 2B Duce Gourson earned Preseason All-America acclaim from Baseball America and Perfect Game
• Gourson, Cody Schrier, and Luke Jewett were named to the 2024 Pac-12 Preseason All-Conference Team
• The Bruins were picked to finish 3rd in the Pac-12 Preseason Coaches Poll
• Bruin alum Gerrit Cole won the 2023 AL Cy Young, making UCLA the first DI school ever to have had multiple Cy Young winners on the same team
• Nick Nastrini was called up by the White Sox on Apr. 15, making him the 92nd Bruin all-time to make his MLB debut

Projected Pitching Matchups
Friday, April 26 - 5 p.m. PT 
UCLA - Jr. RHP Luke Jewett (1-4, 4.61 ERA)
Utah - RSr. LHP Bryson Van Sickle (3-0, 2.64 ERA)
Saturday, April 27 - 1 p.m. PT 
UCLA - So. RHP Michael Barnett (3-2, 4.91 ERA)
Utah - So. RHP Merit Jones (2-2, 4.89 ERA)
Sunday, April 28 - 12 p.m. PT 
UCLA - Fr. RHP Landon Stump (0-3, 5.62 ERA)
Utah - TBA

On the Road    
This weekend sees UCLA open up a stretch of playing 10 of 11 games away from Jackie Robinson Stadium. The Bruins are scheduled to play road series against Pac-12 opponents Utah and Oregon State, and midweeks at Pepperdine and UC Irvine. In the middle of that, the Bruins will play a tri-venue series against Cal State Fullerton during the team's conference bye week (one apiece at Angel Stadium, CSF's Goodwin Field, and UCLA's Jackie Robinson stadium; the latter representing the Bruins' lone home game during this span). Prior to this stretch, UCLA had played just 15 true road games all season. 
The All-Time Series Against Utah    
UCLA owns a 35-6-1 record all-time against Utah, including a 28-4-1 mark since the Utes joined the Pac-12 Conference before the 2012 season. UCLA has won 10 of 11 series over Utah since 2012, and has won 16 of the last 19 head-to-head games against the Utes (Utah snapped a 15-game losing streak to UCLA in 2022, and the two teams tied in the series finale at Jackie Robinson Stadium last year due to a travel curfew).
Last Year Against the Utes    

• UCLA won a home series over Utah from Apr. 6-8 of last year, winning the first two games of the set before settling for a tie in the finale. The series ran Thursday to Saturday due to it being Easter weekend.
• Game 1 – A pair of early multi-run rallies proved to be more than enough offense for Kelly Austin, who led UCLA to a 5-3 win over Utah in the series opener. Austin set then-career highs in innings (7.0) and strikeouts (11). He went nine-up, nine-down to start the game, and allowed just a single the rest of the way after Utah got to him for two runs in the fourth. UCLA went ahead for good in the first after stringing together four consecutive singles for two runs. The Bruins added three in the third after Duce Gourson and Cody Schrier led off that frame with doubles. Cody Delvecchio went 1-2-3 in the ninth for his first-career save.
• Game 2 – Jake Brooks led a combined 12-inning shutout as UCLA recorded a 1-0 walk-off win to clinch the series. JonJon Vaughns had the game-winning hit, shooting an opposite-field single to left with the bases loaded and nobody out in the 12th. UCLA had previously juiced the bags on a Keenan Proctor bunt single, a mis-played sac bunt, and an intentional walk. Brooks went six-plus scoreless for UCLA, and Cody Delvecchio, Luke Jewett, and Charles Harrison chipped in two scoreless relief innings apiece. It was UCLA's first walk-off win of the year. 
• Game 3 –UCLA and Utah battled to a 10-10 tie in Saturday's series finale, as the game was called after 11 innings and four-and-a-half hours due to a travel curfew. The game was a back-and-forth affair, as the teams traded the lead and crooked numbers multiple times over the middle inings. It settled into a bullpen duel late, with neither team getting on the board from the ninth inning on. Six Bruins had multiple hits, including two-hit days for each of the bottom-four batters in the lineup. Jarrod Hocking had a double and triple for the first two extra-base hits of his career. Cody Delvecchio fired four scoreless relief innings to lead UCLA on the mound. 
• For the weekend, UCLA out-scored Utah 16-13 and had the edge in batting (.274-.221) and ERA (2.53-4.20)
• It marked UCLA's first tie since Apr. 29, 2014 at UC Santa Barbara (game called after 12 innings due to darkness with the score tied, 5-5)

Active Bruins Against Utah    
Current members of the UCLA baseball team with strong career numbers against the Utes include: Cody Delvecchio (3 apps, 7 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 5 K), Duce Gourson (.333/.462/.476, 3 XBH in 6 GP), Jarrod Hocking (3-10, 2 XBH, 2 RBIs in 3 GP), Luke Jewett (1 app, 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K), Malakhi Knight (5-13, 2 R in 3 GP), Daylen Reyes (.286/.500/1.000, 2 XBH, 4 R in 4 GP), Cody Schrier (.321/.387/.536, 4 XBH, 5 R in 6 GP), and Carson Yates (8-22, 5 RBIs, 6 R in 6 GP)

UCLA Hits Four Homers in UCI Midweek    
The Bruins went yard four times in an April 23 midweek game against UC Irvine, including the first-career multi-homer game from Roch Cholowsky and one roundtripper apiece from Duce Gourson and Jack Holman. The four dingers were a season high, the most for the Bruins in a single game since the opening weekend of the 2023 campaign (Feb. 18, 2023 vs. Omaha), and just the fourth four-HR game for the program in the 2020s (two in 2021, one apiece in 2023 and 2024).

Friendly Confines    
The Bruins are off to a solid start in home games so far this season, going 11-11 at Jackie Robinson Stadium. UCLA holds advantages in on-base percentage (.383-.366) and walks drawn (125-103). The Bruins went 19-9-1 at JRS a season ago, including a 13-game home winning streak to open the campaign. UCLA had a plus-63 run differential (207-144) in home games last year. 

The Week In Review    
UCLA is coming off an 0-4 week, dropping a weekend series to Arizona State and a midweek to UC Irvine, all at home:

• FRI — Despite AJ Salgado going 3-4 and Duce Gourson reaching four times, UCLA logged a 5-3 loss in game one. The Bruins led early after a first-inning two-spot, but were held off the board from then until the ninth inning. ASU took the lead for good with three unearned runs in the second. Luke Jewett was a tough-luck loser for the Bruins, going six complete while allowing just one earned run. He settled in after the early innings, retiring nine of the final 10 and 14 of the final 16 batters he faced.
• SAT — ASU scored in each of its first four offensive innings en route to a series-clinching 8-2 win in game two. JonJon Vaughns (RBI double) and Cody Schrier (solo HR) paced UCLA offensively. Michael Barnett took the loss for UCLA but improved as his seven-inning outing went along, posting a zero in each of his last three frames and allowing just one hit over that span. All nine starters had a hit for ASU. 
• SUN — ASU finished off the sweep with a 13-1 Sunday decision. Cody Schrier, Mulivai Levu, and Roch Cholowsky had two hits apiece for UCLA, and Phoenix Call singled in the ninth for his first-career hit. Rashad Ruff was the standout among the five pitchers employed by UCLA, going 3 2/3 scoreless innings while allowing just one hit. ASU hit four home runs, and robbed UCLA's JonJon Vaughns of a roundtripper of his own in the eighth inning.
• TUE — UCLA hit a season-high four home runs, but absorbed a 9-7 loss to No. 12-ranked UC Irvine. The Bruins looked to be in the driver's seat late, as Duce Gourson hit a game-tying solo homer in the eighth before Roch Cholowsky put the Bruins ahead with a two-run shot of his own to make it 7-5 in UCLA's favor, but UCI responded with a decisive four-spot in the ninth punctuated by a Chase Call three-run homer.

Bruins On the National Leaderboards    

• UCLA enters the contest ranked in the upper-third nationally in the following team stats:
• BB/9 - 4.20 (6th in the Pac-12 / 79th in the NCAA)
• Sac Bunts - 19 (4th / 84th)
• Double plays turned - 2 (7th / 89th)
• WHIP - 1.53 (8th / 93rd)
• Triples - 9 (6th / 94th)
• ERA - 5.37 (8th / 100th)