No. 21 Cal Poly Falls to No. 9 UCLA 6-4 in Los Angeles Regional

Saturday, June 1

Jackie Robinson Stadium, UCLA

6 pm

40-18

UCLA

41-17

UCLA

Cal Poly

No. 21 Cal Poly Falls to No. 9 UCLA 6-4 in Los Angeles Regional

6/1/2013 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS (KSBY)
CP VS. USD: AUDIO STREAM | VIDEO STREAM | LIVE STATS

LOS ANGELES, Calif. – No. 21 Cal Poly let a 4-0 lead slip away as No. 9 UCLA rallied for six runs in the sixth and seventh innings en route to a 6-4 victory in the winner's bracket final of the NCAA Division I Los Angeles Regional on Saturday night at Jackie Robinson Stadium.

Mustang sophomore southpaw Matt Imhof pitched a no-hitter through five innings before he gave up four runs on four hits in the sixth. He left the game with a 4-1 lead and sophomore right-hander Reed Reilly came on with one out and the bases loaded.

Reilly struck out Pat Valaika for the second out, but designated hitter Kevin Williams' long fly ball to right field was lost in the lights and fell behind Nick Torres for a three-run triple. Those three runs were charged to Imhof.

"In the sixth, they were starting to pick at me," said Imhof. "I was tipping my pitches, I guess. I think they got almost every pitch in the sixth. Gave them enough of an advantage that they were able to put some good swings on some balls, and once I got the fly out in left to get that, I was almost sure I was going to get the ground ball double play and I got him to kind of hit it up the middle and Denver made a great play."

UCLA added two more runs in the seventh on a bases-loaded infield single by Eric Filia and a walk to Valaika.

The loss dropped Cal Poly to 40-18 for the season while UCLA improved to 41-17.

"It's disappointing, but a great college baseball game," said 11th-year Cal Poly head coach Larry Lee. "The game had a lot of everything in it, some great pitching, big offensive production. Tough one to swallow, though."

Added ninth-year UCLA head coach John Savage, "We were fortunate to win, but we did a good job the last five innings of really winning those innings. That was the difference in the game. They are competitive and well-coached, but we know we dodged one."

At the postgame press conference, Torres was asked about the lost fly ball.

"We were actually kind of concerned before that ball about the lighting," Torres said. "We were telling each other we needed a lot of talk, pointing and stuff, ball's in the air. That one just got up above the lights and I had no idea where it was. Everybody else said they couldn't see it, but that doesn't change the fact that it happened."

Added Williams, "I thought I just got under it a little bit. I looked up, and I had a tough time seeing it and realized that he couldn't see it either, so I got on my horse and got to third."

The Mustangs will play San Diego (36-24) in an elimination game Sunday at 2 p.m. UCLA awaits the winner of that game in the championship final at 6 p.m. Should UCLA lose, another game to determine the winner of the double-elimination regional would be played Monday night at 6.

Earlier in the day, San Diego eliminated San Diego State with a 6-3 victory. The Aztecs finish the year 31-31. Cal Poly beat San Diego 9-2 in the opening game of the regional Friday afternoon.

Cal Poly opened up a 4-0 lead with two runs in the first inning and single runs in the third and fourth.

A sacrifice fly by Torres tallied the first run and junior third baseman Jimmy Allen doubled down the left-field line to make it 2-0 in the first inning.

Junior left fielder David Armendariz singled to left field for an RBI and a 3-0 Mustang lead in the third. Senior second baseman Denver Chavez drew a leadoff walk in the fourth, took second on a wild pitch and came home on a single to left by Torres.

Cal Poly, which tallied four runs on eight hits in the first four innings, was held to just one two-out single by sophomore center fielder Jordan Ellis the rest of the way.

UCLA junior right-hander Nick Vander Tuig (11-4) earned the win, allowing four runs and nine hits in six innings with three walks and three strikeouts.

Freshman reliever James Kaprielian struck out four in two scoreless, hitless innings and Pac-12 Player of the Year David Berg earned his 20th save with a perfect ninth inning, striking out two.

The loss went to Reilly (2-4) as he allowed the go-ahead runs in the seventh. He struck out two, walked two and gave up four hits in two innings.

Chavez and Ellis each had two of Cal Poly's nine hits. Allen's first-inning RBI double was the lone extra-base hit for the Mustangs.

Filia singled twice for UCLA.

Freshman right-hander Casey Bloomquist (6-2, 4.78 ERA) will start Sunday for Cal Poly against San Diego junior southpaw Louie Lechich (3-3, 3.13 ERA).

"We've been resilient all year," said Lee. "We've gone through a lot of adversity. We've won a lot of series where we've lost the Friday game and won Saturday-Sunday. We've done it in all different combinations. We've had heartbreak losses and been able to turn it around and our goal is just to last until Monday and hopefully play three more baseball games.

"Baseball's that way. You play so many games, you lose ballgames," Lee added. "You just have to be resilient and how you respond says a lot about your character and a lot about you team. So this team's done it all year and I expect nothing less from them."