April 1, 2014

Box Score

LOS ANGELES, Calif. - Junior Tanner Donnels matched a career-high with three RBI on Tuesday night at LMU's Page Stadium, but the effort was not enough, as LMU fell to #21 UCLA by a count of 5-3. Freshman Austin Miller, who had a large group of followers from his home town of Greeley, Colo. in attendance, collected his fifth straight multiple-hit game, going 2-for-3 with a run scored and a stolen base out of the leadoff spot. The speedy centerfielder has now hit in eight straight games, batting .500 (15-for-30) with eight runs scored over the span.

Freshman Brenton Arriaga got the start and took a no-decision on Tuesday, allowing just two runs on six hits and a walk over 4.1 frames. The native of Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. fanned five in his fourth career start. Freshman Tim Peabody was the first Lion reliever used, and he was tagged with his first loss of the season after allowing two runs on a hit and two walks over 1.0 inning of work.

UCLA's Grant Dyer earned the victory in his second start of the season against LMU, tossing 5.2 innings and allowing two runs on nine hits while striking out two to improve to 4-2 on the year. David Berg, by many accounts the top reliever in college baseball, finished the final 1.2 innings on the hill for UCLA, retiring all five hitters he faced, including striking out three, to earn his eighth save of the year.

UCLA got on the board first in the top of the first inning when Ty Moore shot a two-out single through the right side to bring home Christoph Bono. Moore finished the game 2-for-5 with the RBI, while Bono went 2-for-4 with a double, a run scored and a RBI.

Donnel's contributed his first RBI-single in the bottom of the first to tie the game at one, lacing a pitch to the opposite field to bring home David Fletcher. Fletcher had reached on a fielder's choice earlier in the inning when Miller was thrown out trying to move from second to third on a ground ball to shortstop. The baserunning mistake was the first of two committed by the Lions, as Jimmy Jack was also thrown out at third trying to go first-to-third on a single up the middle in the second inning.

The Lions took a 2-1 lead in the third inning when Donnels once again came up with a clutch two-out single to plate a run. This time it was Miller who came in to score after reaching on an infield single to lead off the inning and moving to third on a sacrifice bunt and a productive ground ball.

UCLA strung together four unanswered runs in the middle of the game, scoring once in the fifth on an RBI-double from Bono, twice in the sixth, highlighted by an RBI-single from Chris Keck with the bases loaded, and once more in the seventh on a Kort Peterson RBI-single to centerfield. The run in the seventh was unearned, as Luke Persico reached on the first of two errors charged to the Lions on the night.

LMU did manage to push its final run of the game across in the eighth against the UCLA bullpen when Fletcher singled up the middle and stole second base. A fly ball to right field from Tommy Cheek moved the runner up 90 feet before Donnels collected his third hit and RBI of the night with a sharp single up the middle on the first pitch of the at bat.

LMU will return to action on Friday when it opens a three-game West Coast Conference series with San Francisco at 6 pm.