UCLA weekend recap: Baseball sweeps USC

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UCLA secured its second Pac-12 sweep of the season this weekend by dominating rival USC at Dedeaux Field.

The Bruins (24-20, 13-8 Pac-12) finished the three-game sweep Saturday with a 13-0 drubbing, led by six RBIs from freshman Michael Toglia and five shutout innings from pitcher Jon Olsen. Olsen’s seven strikeouts were the second-most of the sophomore’s career.

USC’s only runs of the weekend came Friday, but were no match for UCLA’s Ryan Kreidler, who was 2-for-4 with three RBIs, including two game-winning RBIs in the ninth inning.

Junior pitcher Griffin Canning shut down the Trojans (19-25, 6-15 Pac-12) in Thursday’s series opener with 10 strikeouts in a complete game as the Bruins won 2-0. The UCLA ace has thrown seven or more innings in five of his past six starts.

The Bruins hadn’t swept a Pac-12 opponent since the second weekend of the conference season when they beat Cal.

Elsewhere in UCLA athletics:

  • Softball took two of three from No. 3 Arizona at Easton Stadium on Senior Weekend. The No. 12 Bruins shut out the second-highest scoring team in the country in back-to-back games to start the series before Arizona avoided the sweep Sunday to clinch the Pac-12 title. The Wildcats had been shut out only once this season, a 1-0 loss to No. 1 Florida State in February. UCLA (39-12, 13-8 Pac-12) was the first team to mercy rule the Wildcats this year with an 8-0, five-inning win in Friday’s series opener. Rachel Garcia gave up only two hits in five innings in the circle while Bubba Nickles had three RBIs. Madeline Jelenicki led the Bruins in their 6-0 win Saturday with four RBIs as Selina Ta’amilo and Garcia gave up just six hits combined. Garcia struck out five in 2 2/3 innings pitched to earn the save after Ta’amilo earned her 13th win of the year. Arizona (48-7, 18-6 Pac-12) scored four runs in the first inning Sunday before winning 7-2 to close the series.
  • Christina Chenault, Kendall Gustafson and Monique Van placed fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively, in the heptathlon at the Pac-12 Combined Event Championships. The trio of Bruins scored 12 team points for UCLA heading into the Pac-12 Championships from May 13-14 in Eugene, Ore.