UCLA Baseball Drops Pac-12 Opener to Crosstown Rival USC

Jake Brooks settled down after allowing four runs in the second inning, but his 7-inning performance was not enough to earn the Bruins the win.

(Photo Courtesy of Scott Chandler/UCLA Athletics)

Going headfirst into conference action, the Bruins could not string together enough run-creating chances to overcome the Trojans' offensive output.

UCLA baseball (9-5 0-1 Pac-12) started Friday's rivalry matchup with USC baseball (10-2 1-0 Pac-12) scoring a run using coach John Savage's patented phrase "Bruin baseball" — a mix of productive at-bats and advancing runners — but an explosive second inning from the Trojans set up a comfortable advantage and helped the Bruins' crosstown foes win 7-2.

"Pac-12 play, every game is going to be a hard game," said sophomore starting pitcher Jake Brooks. "There aren't any easy games and coach [Savage] has emphasized that before. I just think that we need to get back to it tomorrow, it's going to be another dogfight."

Graduate left fielder Kenny Oyama helped the Bruins jump to a one-run lead from the get-go.

Oyama singled to lead off the bottom of the first and in the next at-bat, stole second base. With two outs in the frame, freshman second baseman Ethan Gourson had a chance to score Oyama from second — and did — lifting a soft line drive just inside the right-field line, giving the Bruins a 1-0 lead.

Despite having a small cushion on the mound, Brooks pitched into trouble in the following half-inning. The righty allowed a single and a hit-by-pitch to start the frame and the blows kept on being dealt as the inning continued. 

USC capitalized with runners on. Trojans' catcher Garret Guillemette smoked a pitch two feet by Brooks on the mound, into center field and scored the runner from second to tie the game. Seconds later, USC first baseman Nick Lopez lifted an RBI sac-fly to left-field and the Trojans took a 2-1 lead.

Brooks was able to get two outs and was close to skipping off the mound and back into the dugout with a manageable score, but left a fastball over the plate and Trojans' designated hitter Tyler Lozano hit a two-run home run, with the ball just evading the top of the right-field wall.

Following the tumultuous second inning, Brooks battled — throwing five scoreless innings and only allowing one hit. Overall, the Bruins' Friday starter threw 7.0 frames, four hits, four earned runs, one walk and four strikeouts. 

Friday's start was an opposite of last week against Baylor, in which Brooks threw a complete game despite getting the loss.

"I thought he was pretty good," Savage said. "Whenever you throw seven innings and give up six zeros you're doing a pretty good job... He battled, he competed, he made pitches. He wasn't clearly razor-sharp, but he was good enough that he kept us in the game."

Suddenly the Bruins were down 4-1 and seemed to have zero response for USC starting pitcher Jaden Agassi's arsenal — being unable to get a hit in 11 straight at-bats from the second through the fourth.

In the top of the fifth, sophomore center fielder Carson Yates curbed that trend and whacked a base hit straight up the middle. Yates was removed from the basepaths, getting picked off at first, but started a rally that chipped away at the Trojans' lead. 

Sophomore right fielder JonJon Vaughns walked and redshirt sophomore catcher Tommy Beres singled through the 4-3 hole, setting up a first-and-third situation for Oyama.

The 5-foot-4 LMU transfer grounded out to short, but the in-play action scored Vaughns from third cut the deficit to two.

Dipping into the bullpen in the top of the eighth, junior lefty Jake Saum, freshman right Luke Jewett and freshman left-hander Ethan Flanagan combined to try and stymie the Trojans.

However, the trio could not, with a two-out double pushing across two runs and re-establishing USC's two-run lead. In the top of the ninth, the Trojans expanded their lead to another run on an RBI-single — causing the score to increase to 7-2.

UCLA scratched home two runs on graduate first baseman Jake Palmer's two-RBI single in the bottom of the ninth, but the Bruins could not tack on more and fell three runs short.

Gourson came up to the plate with two runners on and two outs ripping a pitch close to a game-tying homer, but the ball was foul down the right-field line.

However, Friday, against USC, the left-handed-hitting freshman could not repeat his magic like he did in February against CSUN with a walk-off home run. Gourson popped out and the Trojans took the victory. 

"That's always a situation that you want to be in," Gourson said. "I wouldn't want anyone else to be in it other than me. It's a situation you always look at [and] think about growing up. You want those tough at-bats, you want the pressure. I wish the result would have been different, but it's what I want."

Offensively, Vaughns went 0-0 at the plate, earning a rare four-walk performance. The two-sport athlete collected three or more walks for the second time this season, the first of which being Feb. 26 against UC Riverside when he took first base three times.

UCLA returns for game two of the series against the Trojans on Saturday, with the game starting at 5 p.m.

Follow Royer on Twitter at @thebenroyer
Follow All Bruins on Twitter at @SI_AllBruins
Like All Bruins on Facebook at @SI.AllBruins
Subscribe to All Bruins on YouTube

Read more UCLA stories: UCLA Bruins on Sports Illustrated
Read more UCLA baseball stories: UCLA Baseball on Sports Illustrated