UCLA Baseball Upsets No. 1 Texas to Wrap Up Big Weekend in Houston

A quality start by Kelly Austin turned into a three-man gem for the Bruins, who became the first team to beat the Longhorns all season.

(Photo Courtesy of Scott Chandler/UCLA Baseball)

Matched up against the undefeated top-ranked team in the nation and needing a victory to leave Houston with a winning record, the Bruins rose to the occasion.

Coach John Savage turned to junior college transfer Kelly Austin for his first high-profile NCAA start and he delivered, twirling 5.1 one-run innings to stun No. 1 Texas (11-1) and help lead UCLA baseball (8-4) to a 5-1 win on Sunday. The victory made it six out of seven from the Bruins, and it also allowed them to walk away from the Shriners Children's College Classic at Minute Maid Park 2-1.

Austin struck out eight batters in the game and stymied the Longhorns until his removal. Allowing a solo shot to Texas first baseman Ivan Melendez in the fourth, the righty's season ERA rose, but only to 0.53. Austin immediately resumed his efficient introduction to Division I baseball by retiring the next seven batters he faced after that lone four-bagger.

The Bruins did not run out of gas on offense after their 15-3 mercy-rule victory over Oklahoma on Saturday, either, tallying runs on the board throughout the contest.

Freshman second baseman Ethan Gourson led off the top of the third with a double into left field, giving UCLA an early opportunity to score with a runner in scoring position.

The moment did not get the best of junior catcher Darius Perry, who came up to the plate with one out. The right-handed hitter laced a single into right field, scoring Gourson and providing the Bruins with a 1-0 lead.

After Melendez's home run tied the game up, UCLA had a chance to score just a half-inning later thanks in large part to graduate left fielder Kenny Oyama's one-man baserunning showcase.

The LMU transfer walked with one out in the top of the fifth and the 5-foot-4 speedster had the green light not once, but twice in the frame. Stealing second and third, Oyama set up a chance to retake the lead for his fellow graduate student first baseman Jake Palmer.

Palmer blooped a fly ball into center field and Longhorns' outfielder Douglas Hodo III dove to try and make a run-saving play, but the ball dropped and Palmer earned himself an RBI single that gave the Bruins a 2-1 advantage.

From the fifth onward, UCLA continued to tack on insurance. Later in the frame, Palmer scored on a passed ball after advancing to third on junior third baseman Michael Curialle's two-out single.

Sophomore right fielder Carson Yates and Gourson combined to account for another run in the sixth. Yates continued his recent wreckage at the plate, smashing a triple to left-center before getting doubled in on a deep fly ball to left by Gourson that just got by the outfielder's glove and careened off the wall.

The Bruins' 4-1 lead remained until the top of the ninth, when the Bruins manufactured their fifth run with a return to some small ball action. Curialle set a bunt down five feet in front of the plate, and it was Oyama who rushed home without a throw.

Those five runs were more than enough for UCLA's pitching staff to deal with on Sunday. Whereas Texas needed six pitchers through nine innings, the Bruins only used Austin and freshman pitchers Luke Juwett and Alonzo Tredwell.

In the sixth, Jewett inherited a runner and got out of the inning unscathed, striking out a batter on an outside fastball and inducing a flyball to right-center for the third out.

Tredwell earned a three-inning save after taking over for Jewett in the seventh and continuing his recent run on strikeouts. The 6-foot-8 right-hander struck out the side in the eighth, then added back-to-back swinging punchouts to end the game in the ninth.

Texas had just five hits and two walks compared to 14 strikeouts, and the Longhorn bats were unable to produce an extra-base hit all afternoon. The Bruins, on the other hand, got six hits from Yates, Gourson and Curialle alone, hitting .300 as a team with runners on base while their opponents went 0-for-9.

As a result, UCLA beat the No. 1 team in the country for the first time since 2018, when they did so against Pac-12 foe Oregon State to end that season.

UCLA will return to action on Tuesday to host Cal State Fullerton in a 6 p.m. mid-week affair.

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