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STANFORD, Calif. -- The Stanford baseball team had 13 hits but left 12 runners on base in a 9-3 series-deciding loss to No. 3 UCLA Sunday afternoon. A season high 2,740 fans came out to Klein Field at Sunken Diamond to watch the Bruins win a series over Stanford for the first time since 2010.
Stanford (18-23, 5-13 Pac-12) outhit UCLA, 34-28, in the series to produce a .321 batting average against the Bruins’ stellar pitching staff. Nine errors and 20 runners left on combined during Saturday and Sunday’s games allowed UCLA to erase a 1-0 series deficit with back-to-back wins.
“We played our best game of the year on Friday night, then Saturday and Sunday we really gave them too much,” said Mark Marquess, the Clarke and Elizabeth Nelson Director of Baseball. “They got a lot of hits but we made errors in conjunction with that and made some mental mistakes. We just gave them too many base runners and couldn’t keep up with them.”
UCLA (31-9, 16-5 Pac-12) has not lost a series all season. The Bruins’ 10th consecutive series win has them at the top of the Pac-12 standings.
Jesse Kuet, Zach Hoffpauir, Beau Branton, Jonny Locher and Bryce Carter all had two hits apiece as part of Stanford’s 13 hit attack Sunday. The Cardinal was only outhit by one, 14-13, despite the six-run difference.
Locher hit a two-run homer to left field on the eighth pitch of an at-bat against UCLA starter Griffin Canning to give Stanford its only lead of the day, 2-1, in the second. That advantage was short-lived, as the Bruins plated four in the next half inning before adding two in the sixth and two in the ninth.
The two runs were the only blemish on Canning’s day. Canning (7-1) threw 5.0 innings, allowed seven hits, struck out one and did not issue a walk for the seventh win of his freshman campaign.
Ty Moore had four hits and one RBI out of the No. 3 hole for UCLA. No. 4-hole hitter Darrell Miller Jr. added three hits and drove in three.
Chris Castellanos (2-1) took his first loss of the season following two of the best games of his career. He pushed his hitless innings streak to 12.0 by getting the first two Bruins before allowing four runs on eight hits in 2.1 innings. Castellanos worked hitless appearances against Utah (4.1 innings) and California (7.0 innings) in his two previous games.
David Berg, one of the top closers in the nation, picked up his ninth save by getting the last five outs. Stanford had rallied to get the tying run to the plate in the seventh and the tying run on deck in the eighth before the sidewinding righty shut the door. Berg’s earned-run average dropped to 0.89.
Logan James (2.1 innings, 1 run) and Tyler Thorne (2.1 innings, 0 runs) were solid out of the Stanford bullpen.
Beau Branton and Drew Jackson moved their hitting streaks to 11 and eight games, respectively.
Stanford ends its eight-game homestand by hosting San Jose State (11-33) on Tuesday.