The University of Utah baseball team struggled in a three-game series against the nation’s top team this weekend. UCLA’s sweep of the Utes brings Utah’s record to 12-25 (4-17) on the season.

Game 1:

The first game of the series was all UCLA as the Bruins threw a two-hit shutout against the Utes.

Matt Richardson was the bright spot for Utah’s offense, getting the Utes’ only two hits in his three at bats. Richardson singled to left in the third inning and singled to right in the sixth to power Utah’s effort.

Riley Pierce had a good outing for the Utes, going seven innings, striking out four and giving up four runs. Zac McCleve and Jacob Rebar came in to finish the game as they gave up one hit and one run on one strikeout.

Utah came up short in Game 1 against UCLA 0-5.

Game 2:

The Utes were the first to cross the plate in Game 2, but UCLA’s defense was able to keep Utah off the board the rest of the day.

Things were looking good early for Utah as Shea Kramer doubled to score Erick Migueles in the first. After the Utes took an early 1-0 lead, UCLA responded quickly with two of their own in the bottom of the inning. Four more runs crossed the plate as the game fell in favor of UCLA.

Four Utes had one hit each while Kramer led the team offensively with one RBI. Joshua Tedeschi was one out shy of throwing a complete game for the Utes, going 7.2 innings with eight strikeouts.

Game 2 went the Bruins way as they beat the Utes by a score of 6-1.

Game 3:

A late comeback attempt by Utah was brought to a halt as UCLA finished the sweep against the Utes 6-4.

UCLA jumped to an early 3-0 lead before Oliver Dunn’s double scored Richardson in the fifth. One batter later, the Utes would strike again as Rykker Tom singled to drive home Dunn, which brought the score to 3-2.

The Bruins extended the lead to 5-2 when Zack Moeller’s fielders choice scored Migueles from third. Chandler Anderson would hit a sacrifice fly later in the inning to drive in Moeller to continue chipping away at the Bruins.

UCLA would add an insurance run in the bottom half of the eighth to put a seal on the sweep against the Utes.

Dustyn Schramm got his second start of the week throwing 4.2 innings with two strikeouts. McCleve came on in relief in the fifth going 3.1 innings allowing three hits and two runs.

Six Utes combined for one hit each while four Utes teamed up for one RBI a piece.

Next Weekend’s Matchups:

The Utes will be back at Smith’s Ballpark next weekend to take on the California Berkeley Golden Bears. Utah and Cal will go head to head on Friday at 6 p.m., Saturday at 4 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. All games will be broadcast on Utah’s Live Stream and Pac-12 Plus Live Stream. You can also follow along with live stats of the game. The streams and stats can be found on utahutes.com.

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