As the ball tipped over the glove and into the outfield, the UCLA fans cheered.
They had good reason. With the top-seeded Bruins baseball team facing elimination in its own NCAA Regional, a fielding error at shortstop helped extend their season a little longer.
In a 9-1 win over Cal State Bakersfield on Sunday evening at Jackie Robinson Stadium, UCLA turned a one-run lead into a six-run cushion — batting in five unearned runs after Mylz Jones mishandled a likely groundout in the top of the seventh.
“I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to catch a 120-mile per hour knuckleball,” said CSUB coach Bill Kernan. “That’s what that was.”
It was Jones’ 12th error of the season, and likely the most costly of them all. Making their first trip to the NCAA Tournament, the Roadrunners had stuck close to the nation’s top overall seed. Sophomore pitcher Steven Gee, who made the All-WAC Tournament team after throwing a complete game shutout, had been solid. After giving up a leadoff home run to UCLA shortstop Kevin Kramer in the first inning, he buckled down, retiring 11 of his next 13 batters.
He sat down in the dugout after 6.2 innings of work, exiting with four walks, one strikeout, and one earned run.
The trouble was the unearned runs. UCLA (44-15) was facing two outs in the top of the seventh when Brett Stephens’ liner glanced off the top of Jones’ glove. Instead of entering the bottom of the frame, the Bruins bumped their lead to 2-0.
The next at-bat made them even more comfortable. Ty Moore hammered a homer over right field, plating three more runs and prompting a pitching change for Cal State Bakersfield (37-24-1). Too little, too late. UCLA had rediscovered its offensive groove, and scored four more runs before the final out.
In the bottom of the seventh, Chris Keck doubled into right field to give the Bruins a 6-0 lead. In the eighth, Trent Chatterton added to the tally with a one-RBI single. Before the end of the frame, Luke Persico connected on a single of his own for two more runs.
On the mound, UCLA got a good but unspectacular start from junior Cody Poteet, who served most of this season as a reliever and the Bruins’ midweek starter. The righty walked four batters and hit two more, but didn’t allow a run in 5.1 innings.
A commanding lead also allowed coach John Savage to spare his bullpen. After relievers Grant Dyer and Tucker Forbes combined for 1.2 frames, the Bruins turned to sophomore Moises Ceja for the rest of the game.
Ceja, who only had five career innings under his belt, gave up a solo home run in the bottom of the ninth before retiring three straight.
The Bruins also need to beat Maryland on Sunday night in order to force another rematch with the Terrapins on Monday at 8 p.m. They had already lost to Maryland on Saturday, 4-1.