LOS ANGELES, Calif. --- UC Irvine baseball had the eighth-ranked Bruins on the ropes, but it slipped away in the bottom of the ninth Friday night at Jackie Robinson Stadium losing on a bases-loaded walk to drop their first game of 2021, 4-3.

FIRST STRIKE
UC Irvine (3-1) made the first move on offense, something they've done in every game so far this season. A one-out single by Mike Peabody started things, and he advanced to second on a failed pickoff. Nathan Church smacked a ball that second baseman Mikey Perez knocked down putting runners on the corners. Adrian Damla would execute a safety squeeze to bring Peabody home unearned for the 1-0 lead.

UCLA (3-2) got the run back in the second inning. After a walk and single with one out, Jarron Silva put a ball through the right side to plate Josh Hahn and tie things up, 1-1.

MIDDLE-INNING MAGIC
The 'Eaters threatened again in the fourth inning with a walk and single to start the inning. The runners moved to second and third after a sacrifice, but now with two outs it was up to Jacob Castro. The catcher, much like in Sunday's win, laced a two-out, two-strike single to right field scoring both runners and grabbing back the lead, 3-1.

The Bruins fought back to tie things up in the seventh. A walk and a single put Bruins on the corners. They would follow with a perfectly-executed double steal to score Jarron Silva and pull to within 3-2. With a runner on third and two outs, reliever John Vergara looked like he was going to get out the inning on a grounder by Kevin Kendall. Kendall beat Vergara to the bag on the grounder to Damla to extend the inning and score Perez and even it up again, 3-3.

HOW IT ENDED
Both sides built mini threats down the final innings, but neither side could budge the other's bullpen. Anteater closer Josh Ibarra entered for the ninth in a tie game. After getting the leadoff hitter, UCLA would pounce with a double from Perez and single from Kyle Karros. An intentional walk would load the bases, but the next hitter, Jack Filby, would stay patient walking on four pitches and forcing home the winning run, 4-3.

FINAL: #8 UCLA 4, UC IRVINE 3
Decisions went to Kyle Mora of UCLA earning his first win of the year and Josh Ibarra for the 'Eaters, now 0-1. Neither starter went long enough for a decision as Trenton Denholm went three innings striking out three and allowing just one run, but issuing four walks. UCLA's Jared Karros was responsible for all three runs, two earned, and six strikeouts in 4.1 innings.

Both bullpens shone led by Anteater lefty Troy Wentworth tossing three hitless innings in his season debut with a walk and a strikeout. UCLA used six relievers to allow one hit and one walk over the final 5.2 innings.

UCIs offense got multiple hits from Mike Peabody who also scored. Jacob Castro drove home two of the team's three runs. Adrian Damla was the lone 'Eater with a hit, run, and RBI on the night. UCLA was led by Mikey Perez and his two hits and two runs.

Thoughts from Head Coach Ben Orloff
"Our four games are indicative of how our season's going to be. There will be a lot of close, low-scoring games, and when you're in those, the margin for winning and losing is small."

"Denholm feels good. He was limited on pitches. That clearly wasn't the best that he's pitched, but he didn't pitch last week, and we didn't want to take him to deep in the pitch count."

"Troy was great. He's shown us a lot of that, and he didn't get into the game last week. He was really good for his first time this year and we'll be seeing a lot more of him. Then the last three innings, we didn't pitch well enough to win."

"We'd like to start scoring some more runs. Until we start swinging the bats and getting through the lineup, we're going to have to win 2-1 or 3-2. We're not scoring enough to win any other way."

SERIES CONTINUES
The two play the second game of the set Saturday, February 27 with a change of venue heading to Anteater Ballpark. A pair of junior, right-handed, No. 55s go at it between UCI's Peter Van Loon and UCLA's Jesse Bergin with first pitch coming at 1:00 p.m.