LOS ANGELES, Calif. --- UC Irvine and eighth-ranked UCLA were locked in a pitcher's duel Sunday afternoon in Jackie Robinson Stadium siding for the Bruins, 4-0.
FALLING BEHIND
UCLA (4-3) got on the board first in the game taking advantage of a single and two walks loading the bases for a sacrifice fly from Michael Curialle in the first inning.
POWER PITCHING
The next five innings were dominated by the two starting pitchers -
Nick Pinto and Nick Nastrini. Pinto faced the minimum after his rocky first allowing just one walk that would be erased from the basepaths on a caught stealing to end the third.
Nastrini matched him on the bump keeping UC Irvine (4-2) off the board despite five walks. He finished with seven strikeouts to Pinto's four, and kept the 'Eaters hitless until the fifth inning.
FINAL: #8 UCLA 4, UC IRVINE 0
Pinto took the loss Sunday giving him an 0-1 record, but has kept his ERA at a miniscule 0.84 along with just five hits allowed in two starts following his one-hit effort Sunday.
The Anteater bullpen was shaken up a little as
Gordon Ingebritson allowed three runs in the seventh inning. The Bruins got those from a pinch-hit RBI single by Jarron Silva, and after an intentional walk, Kyle Karros slugged a double to plate the other two runs.
UCI's offense managed three hits, two coming from
Jake Palmer who had just one hit entering the game. He also reached base as one of UCI's five walks.
Justin Torres added the third hit in the ninth.
The 'Eaters' best chance to score came in the third inning.
Jacob Castro led the inning off with a walk and reached third on a balk and wild pitch. Walks to Palmer and Church loaded the bases up with two outs, but the threat ended on a strikeout.
Thoughts from Head Coach Ben Orloff
"For Pinto, after his first inning, to think that he'd have the line that he had at the end of the game, he did really good. He pitched over that and minimized, started to get the breaking ball going and a good outing."
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"Good to see Palmer have a good day with two hits and a walk, doing what he's done for us the last three years."
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"Their guy threw the ball well. Nastrini threw really good, he really got that curveball going and was able to get ahead with it. With a guy like that, you don't get too many opportunities to beat him. He was tough."
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"We've done well. I think this will be the case every weekend. Our roster and our players will stack up well against whoever we play. It's just about us continuing to get better. I think we've shown ourselves well. We'd like to have one or two innings back on Friday night and we'd be feeling a lot better about ourselves this weekend. But we're encouraged about where we're at after two weeks."
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COMING UP
Two weekends in the books with a series won and series lost standing at 4-2 against Pac-12 competition. The next chance to get back on the field will be Friday, March 5 to begin a three-game road series against Big West foe UC Riverside in the program's first true road series of 2021 as the Highlanders will play their first games of the season.
