Ethan Gourson Launches Walk-Off Home Run, UCLA Baseball Wins Series Against CSUN

It took the Bruins 13 innings to get the better of the Matadors, needing their freshman's first career bomb to wrap up the rubber-match.

Ethan Gourson had been playing college baseball for all of three days, and the Bruins needed him to pull through with the game and series on the line.

The freshman second baseman rose to the challenge.

UCLA baseball (2-1) was in the 13th inning against CSUN (1-2), on the verge of blowing Sunday's rubbermatch at Jackie Robinson Stadium. The Bruins had led 3-0 late but let the Matadors force extras, then stranded six runners through the first three bonus frames.

Gourson, who had already gotten on base four times in the game, was stepping up to the plate with no outs and a man on first. An extra-base hit would surely score speedy left fielder Kenny Oyama, but through 14 career plate appearances, Gourson didn't have one to his name just yet.

The lefty infielder took the first pitch he saw deep to left-center, and it just got over the fence to give UCLA the 5-3 walk-off victory.

The stakes were higher than just one big moment for a fresh face, though, considering the Bruins followed up Friday's win with a 6-4 loss Saturday. In the latter contest, UCLA trailed 6-0 before scoring four in the bottom of the ninth, and they got the tying run to second before popping out to end the game.

The Bruins were about to make up for the tight loss by closing things out Sunday, riding Orange Coast College transfer right-hander Kelly Austin's six scoreless innings and eight strikeouts to an early lead. Freshman right-hander Thatcher Hurd pitched perfect frames in the seventh and eighth, so heading into the ninth, the Matadors had only gotten three men on base all day long.

With junior right-hander Charles Harrison taking the mound looking to secure the save, CSUN got three more men on base, and they all scored. Right fielder Andrew Sojka took Harrison yard on the first pitch with two men aboard, and it was suddenly all tied up at 3-3.

UCLA was on the verge of letting its opponent do what they themselves were unable to do the day before, potentially losing the first series of the year in the process. Doing so would have mirrored last year's season-opening series loss to San Francisco, which was the beginning of the program's worst regular season since 2017.

Stranding two men in the 10th and the bases loaded in the 12th didn't do anything to avoid a similar fate to last year, and it was Gourson who wound up changing the Bruins' favors in the 13th.

UCLA got its first three runs one at a time, with UC Irvine first baseman Jake Palmer singling in junior right fielder Michael Curialle in the first, Oyama stealing third and scoring on an error in the fifth and freshman center fielder Malakhi Knight driving in freshman pinch-runner Alex Fernandes in the sixth on a single up the middle.

The Bruins needed each and every one of those runs to stay alive in extra innings, and they finished the weekend averaging six runs, 12 hits and 20 men on base per game.

UCLA will return to Jackie Robinson Stadium on Tuesday night to take on Pepperdine at 6 p.m., the fourth game of the Bruins' nine-game homestand to open the season. 

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