UCLA weekend recap: Baseball sweeps Utah

UCLA head coach John Savage (center) honored his four seniors Brett Stephens (far left), Moises Ceja (second from left), Nick Kern (second from right) and Scott Burke (far right), before the team’s final home game Sunday. (Photo courtesy UCLA athletics)

With the postseason inching ever closer, the UCLA baseball team swept an important series against Utah at home to remain in third place in the Pac-12 standings.

The Bruins (28-23, 17-10 Pac-12) are still one game behind second-place Stanford after the Cardinal swept Washington last weekend. Oregon State has already clinched the Pac-12 title.

While celebrating the team’s seniors during their final collegiate home stand, the underclassmen stood out for the Bruins. In the series opener Friday, freshman Jack Stronach went 2 for 3 with a solo home run and three RBIs in UCLA’s 7-3 win. On Saturday, fellow freshmen Chase Strumpf and Michael Toglia drove in all of UCLA’s runs in its 5-3 victory as Strumpf hit a grand slam and Toglia drew a bases-loaded walk. Sophomore Daniel Amaral went 4 for 4 in Sunday’s 8-3 win to help UCLA clinch its third Pac-12 sweep this year.

The Bruins have four regular-season games left, starting with a midweek game at UC Irvine on Tuesday before finishing with a three-game road series against Oregon.

Elsewhere in UCLA athletics:

  • Men’s tennis lost 4-2 to Georgia in the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals in a weather-delayed match that took nearly eight hours in total. The No. 5 Bruins won the doubles point, but lost a critical first-set tiebreaker at No. 6 singles that left the door open for the Bulldogs to come back. The teams split the six first sets 3-3, and No. 13 Georgia, playing on its home courts, took advantage of the UCLA slip-up to grab singles wins at Nos. 2, 4, 5 and 6 to advance to the Final Four. Martin Redlicki, who won his singles match at No. 1, will compete as an individual in the NCAA Singles Championships and pair with Evan Zhu in the Doubles Championships.