The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
11-6
UCLA
6-7
Early lead propels Baseball to series win over UCLA
03.11.2017 | Baseball
The Longhorns put up four in the first and beat the Bruins by a 5-2 final.
AUSTIN, Texas—A four-run first inning sent Texas Baseball (11-6) to a 5-2 win over visiting UCLA (6-7) on a rainy Saturday evening at UFCU Disch-Falk Field. The Longhorns will go for the series sweep tomorrow at 1 p.m. CT.
Through a persistent heavy rain, the Longhorns jumped on UCLA freshman starter Nick Scheidler (1-1) early.
Travis Jones opened the offense in the first with a one-out single and Kacy Clemens continued to rake behind him. Clemens ripped a 3-2 pitch to right-center, scoring Jones from first and giving Texas a 1-0 lead.
Freshman Austin Todd and Clemens traded places, with Todd notching an RBI double of his own to push the Longhorns lead to two. After Bret Boswell walked to put two on, Ryan Reynolds followed with yet another run-scoring double to make it 3-0 in favor of the Longhorns. The next batter, David Hamilton, drove a 2-2 pitch to right and his sacrifice fly gave Texas a 4-0 advantage after one inning of play.
Texas starter Morgan Cooper (2-0) was dominant in the first two frames, striking out five of the first six batters he faced. Cooper ran into trouble in the third, however, as the rain began to come down hard. The right-hander allowed three walks in the inning before uncorking a wild pitch that gave UCLA its first run.
The Longhorns answered back quickly. With two outs in the home half of the third, Reynolds went deep. The freshman hit his second homer of the season, this time down the left field line, to regain the four-run advantage.
Once again, UCLA scratched one across in the fourth, this time thanks to a throwing error on a dropped third strike, but that would do it for the Bruins offense. UCLA threatened in the seventh but Chase Shugart got a pair of strikeouts to keep the visitors off the board in the inning.
The sides swapped zeroes for the remainder of the game and right-hander Kyle Johnston (2) shut the door for his second save in as many days.
The two teams will face off tomorrow in the series finale at 1 p.m. CT.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Cooper, Morgan (2-0)
L: Scheidler (1-1)
S: Johnston, Kyle (2)
Base Running:
RUNS: Toglia 1 ; Kreidler 1
Batting:
2B: Clemens, Kacy 1 ; Todd, Austin 1 ; Reynolds, Ryan 1 ; Hamilton, David 1
HR: Reynolds, Ryan 1
RBI: Clemens, Kacy 1 ; Todd, Austin 1 ; Reynolds, Ryan 2 ; Hamilton, David 1
SF: Hamilton, David 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Jones, Travis 1 ; Clemens, Kacy 1 ; Todd, Austin 1 ; Boswell, Bret 1 ; Reynolds, Ryan 1
SB: Hamilton, David 1
