UCLA Baseball Alumni Come Back to Defeat Current Squad After Year Off From Event

The Bruins did not host their annual alumni reunion game in 2021 due to COVID-19, but the return in 2022 brought familiar faces back to Westwood.

(Photo Courtesy of Eric Hurd/UCLA Athletics)

There was no shortage of pros on the field Saturday afternoon – past, present and future.

In a game where many of them stood out, it was one of the top prospects in the game who had the biggest moment.

Not first baseman Michael Toglia, the Colorado Rockies' No. 6 prospect who was watching from the on-deck circle. Rather, it was his former Bruin teammate, infielder Chase Strumpf, the Chicago Cubs' No. 23 prospect who came through in the clutch with absolutely zero stakes at Jackie Robinson Stadium.

On his side of things, it was simply a college reunion.

UCLA baseball hosted its annual alumni game Saturday after calling the event off in 2021 due to COVID-19. The 2022 Bruins, full of fresh faces, jumped out to a 6-0 lead while no-hitting their predecessors through five innings. A string of walks and hits got the alumni back into things in the seventh, eventually tying it up in the eighth when designated hitter Jake Pries drew a bases loaded walk.

Outfielder Beau Amaral stepped up to the plate to face senior left-hander Daniel Colwell, knocking in two runs to put the alumni up 8-6. Strumpf was next up, and with two men on base, he took Colwell yard over the left field fence.

All of a sudden, the comeback wasn't just complete – the game had been flipped on its head as the current UCLA squad finally got bested by the crew of major and minor leaguers, losing 11-6.

Coach John Savage debuted two different lineups at the plate and in the field, with the first group finding much more success than the next.

Loyola Marymount transfer left fielder Kenny Oyama picked up a leadoff triple in the first, then he got driven in by a double into the left-center gap by freshman shortstop Cody Schrier. The Bruins got another run on the board in the third, then four more in the fifth.

Freshman center fielder Malakhi Knight followed Oyama and Schrier's lead, crushing a double of his own, and UC Irvine transfer Jake Palmer knocked a triple off the very top of the center field wall later on. Junior right fielder Michael Curialle, sophomore third baseman Kyle Karros and senior first baseman Jake Moberg were the only returning members of last year's starting lineup, lending their veteran presence to a group that tallied six runs on Saturday.

While the offense was busy running Zach Pettway, Zack Weiss and Charlie Brewer off the mound, Savage dialed up a bullpen game to try and shut down the alumni's offense early. Junior right-hander Charles Harrison pitched the first three innings, junior left-hander Jake Saum pitched the fourth and freshman right-hander Luke Jewett pitched the fifth, all without allowing a single hit to Toglia, Strumpf, shortstop Ryan Kreidler or the Amaral brothers.

Redshirt freshman right-hander Chris Aldrich sacrificed the first hit of the night, though, with Pries slapping a double down the left field line to lead off the sixth. Center fielder Beau Amaral hit a single that could have scored Pries and ended the shutout, but the third base coach held him up and the rowdy, overflowing alumni dugout let out a chorus of boos.

Aldrich wound up escaping the jam with runners on the corners, aided by freshman Ethan Gourson's contorting catch out of the shift on a pop fly by Toglia.

The lead was still intact when freshmen Nick McLain, Carson Yates and Eli Paton entered the game, and along with them came redshirt sophomore Emmanuel Dean and sophomore JonJon Vaughns. That second wave of Bruins was unable to create many opportunities after stranding the bases loaded in the seventh thanks to a diving catch by left fielder Kyle Cuellar, all while the bullpen struggled in the next few frames.

Right fielder Daniel Amaral picked up an RBI just a few minutes later, then his brother Beau drove in two more. A pop fly to shallow center would have ended the inning, but nobody called for it and it fell to the ground untouched to let another run score.

The big eighth inning vaulted the alumni ahead, and the current Bruins weren't able to do anything about it in the top of the ninth.

The more experienced unit got the better of the young guns, but it was all smiles after the 27th out was made. Per tradition, there were hugs and handshakes all across the infield, followed by a combined photo op for the teams.

Players were joking around, telling each other to suck in their guts for the camera, and former teammates who had been separated for years had finally come back together where their careers began. Even the alumni who spent their day chilling out in the dugout and bullpen, patrolling the bleachers signing autographs and connecting with friends and family made it back onto the field by the end of the game, including New York Yankees ace Gerrit Cole.

As for the 2022 UCLA team, their season will get underway in two weeks time, with CSUN coming to Jackie Robinson Stadium for a three-game series that starts Feb. 18.

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