LOS ANGELES— LMU held its own against the nation's top-ranked team for much of Tuesday night, but No. 1 UCLA pulled away for a 6-2 victory behind a balanced offensive attack and a deep bullpen that the Lions couldn't crack late. 
 

UCLA wasted no time. In the bottom of the first, a Mulivai Levu single to shortstop plated Dean West, and Roman Martin added a run-scoring groundout to put the Bruins up 2-0 before LMU had recorded an out in the inning. The Lions had threatened in the top half, Jaxson Wall and DJ Ghiorso opened the game with back-to-back singles against freshman Angel Cervantes, but left both runners stranded. 
 

LMU clawed back in the second when junior Cooper Whitton hit a solo home run to left field off reliever Jake Swenson, and the Lions tied it in the third when freshman Andrew Mhoon worked a walk, stole second, and came around to score on a Win Gurney RBI single. At 2-2 through three innings, LMU had answered every Bruin punch. 
 

UCLA broke the game open in the bottom of the third, however. A Roman Martin single and a Will Gasparino sacrifice fly off Niko Riera pushed two more runs across, and the Bruins never relinquished the lead from there. Two more runs in the seventh, a Kasen Khansarinia RBI groundout and a wild pitch that scored Jarrod Hocking, stretched it to the final margin. 
 

Riera worked multiple frames in relief and kept the deficit from growing worse, and Zach Bender handled a long outing into the eighth. The Lions' bullpen did a adequate job of keeping one of the top offenses in the country relatively pedestrian.  
 

Ghiorso was active at the plate throughout the night, and Jake Lyall's double in the second helped set the table. But the Lions stranded eight runners and couldn't sustain the pressure they generated early, which ultimately proved to be the difference against a UCLA club with very little margin for error. 
 

The Lions face Cal Poly on Wednesday at Page Stadium with first pitch scheduled for 6:00 p.m. (PT).