Arizona State defeats UCLA, 5-1

Staff Writer

April 30, 2010 10:53 PM PT

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The showdown between highly ranked UCLA and Arizona State lived up to its billing for seven innings before the Sun Devils exploded for four eighth-inning runs on the way to a 5-1 victory Friday evening at Jackie Robinson Stadium.

UCLA’s bullpen, typically a strength, failed to preserve a 1-1 tie after Kole Calhoun doubled off Bruins starter Gerrit Cole to lead off the eighth. Erik Goeddel retired one of two batters before Arizona State’s Johnny Ruettiger delivered the decisive blow, a two-run triple off reliever Matt Grace.

Arizona State, ranked No. 3 in the nation by Baseball America, improves to 36-5 overall and 12-4 in the Pacific 10 Conference. No. 5 UCLA falls to 30-8 and 7-6.

UCLA’s offense was awful, stranding six runners and going 0 for 5 with runners in scoring position. The Bruins scored their only run when Dean Espy grounded into a double play in the second inning.

The Bruins will try to tie the series at 2 p.m. Saturday when Trevor Bauer (6-2) faces Arizona State’s Merrill Kelly (8-0).

--Ben Bolch

Sports Now

Ben Bolch

Ben Bolch has been a Los Angeles Times staff writer since 1999. He is serving his second stint as the UCLA beat writer, which seems fitting since he has covered almost every sports beat except hockey and horse racing. Bolch is also the author of the recently released book “100 Things UCLA Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die.” He previously covered UCLA basketball from 2010-11 before going on to cover the NBA and the Clippers for five years. He happily traded in gobs of hotel points and airline miles to return to cover UCLA basketball and football in the summer of 2016. Bolch was once selected by NBA TV’s “The Starters” as the “Worst of the Week” after questioning their celebrity journalism-style questions at an NBA All-Star game and considers it one of his finer moments.