LOS ANGELES — The UCLA baseball team had a few reasons to be dispirited after the first two innings of their super regional against visiting UT-San Antonio on Saturday afternoon.
The Bruins surrendered a home run on the second pitch of the game, gave up another run on a trick play more often seen at the Little League level and failed to capitalize on their own prime scoring opportunity in the second inning.
But there were still seven innings to go, plenty of time for UCLA right-hander Michael Barnett and the offense to right the ship in the 5-2 victory at Jackie Robinson Stadium.
The Bruins own a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three matchup heading to Game 2 at noon on Sunday. A win will advance UCLA to its first College World Series since 2013.
Barnett (12-1) bounced back from the unwelcome start to allow two runs and six hits over six innings. The junior right-hander struck out one and didn’t walk a batter.
Roman Martin had two hits and drove in three runs for UCLA, which has won 10 in a row.
The Bruins didn’t capitalize after putting runners on second and third with no outs in the second off UTSA right-hander Zach Royse, but they came through in the third.
Back-to-back one-out singles by Dean West and Roch Cholowsky put runners on the corners. Mulivai Levu then lined a two-strike pitch into the right-field corner for an RBI double that cut the lead to 2-1.
Levu came in ranked third in the nation and tops in the Big Ten with 84 RBIs.
Martin then tied the score 2-2 when he drove in Cholowsky with a ground out to third.
The Bruins moved ahead 3-2 in the fourth after loading the bases with one out on singles by Payton Brennan, Cashel Dugger and No. 9 hitter Phoenix Call, followed by a sacrifice fly from West.
UCLA missed opportunities to expand their lead in the fifth and sixth innings, but put runners on the corners with one out in the eighth before Martin delivered a two-out two-run triple into the right-center field gap to make it 5-2.
Barnett, who came in ranked third in the nation in wins and No. 1 in the Big Ten, did not have his first clean inning until the fifth.
Jack O’Connor relieved Barnett to start the seventh and tossed a 1-2-3 inning. August Souza retired all three batters he faced in the eighth, and Easton Hawk did the same in the ninth.
The Bruins did not walk a batter or commit an error.
UTSA came in with confidence after upsetting second-seeded Texas to win its regional last weekend.
Barnett had allowed just seven home runs in 75⅓ innings coming into the game, but Mason Lytle lined the second pitch over the fence in left to give UTSA a 1-0 lead and get his side of the stadium roaring in approval.
UCLA appeared to catch a break when UTSA catcher Andrew Stucky overran second base on a single to right by Ty Hodge that would have loaded the bases with one out in the second inning.
Stucky got tagged out in a rundown for the second out, but the Roadrunners stole a run during the ensuing at-bat when Caden Miller broke for home as Dugger was throwing the ball back to Barnett, and he beat Barnett’s return throw with a head-first slide for a 2-0 lead.
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