No. 1 UCLA becomes first baseball team to reach 40 wins
Top-ranked UCLA became the nation’s first baseball team to reach the 40-win mark this season, with an offensive eruption Tuesday at UC Santa Barbara.
The Bruins produced a season-high 15 hits including home runs from star shortstop Roch Cholowsky and right fielder Payton Brennan in a 15-3 run-rule win over the Gauchos.
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UCLA (40-4) scored five times in the first inning and scored 12 runs before UC Santa Barbara (27-15) first got on the board. Brennan drove in four runs and Cholowsky and second baseman Phoenix Call each drove in three apiece to lead the onslaught. Cholowksy also scored three times.
In all, six Bruins had multi-hit performances and three others had one hit.
UCLA freshman right-hander Angel Cervantes had the longest outing of his young collegiate career, allowing just one run on four hits over five innings. Cervantes (3-1) struck out three, walked none and hit two batters.
Rolling into final month
The Bruins went 14-2 in April, a month that featured the end of a 27-game winning streak two weeks ago at the hands of UC Santa Barbara.
But UCLA has yet to lose in Big Ten play and will take its 21-0 conference mark to Michigan State (16-25, 10-14 Big Ten) for the start of a three-game series beginning Friday. The Bruins are 12-0 in road games this season.
UCLA enters May with a four-game lead on second-place Nebraska, with three series remaining in the regular season.
Team leaders
Four Bruins in the lineup are hitting .331 or better on the season, including a team-leading .347 average from third baseman Roman Martin. Cholowsky and center fielder Will Gasparino lead UCLA with 18 home runs apiece, and Gasparino’s 55 RBIs are tied for 19th nationally.
Cholowsky owns the team lead in OPS (1.172), runs (59), total bases (120) and is tied with left fielder Dean West in being hit by a pitch (20).
On the mound, junior right-hander Logan Reddemann is 8-0 with 2.87 ERA in 59 2/3 innings over 10 starts. He’s struck out 84 batters to just 11 walks, owning a .212 opponent’s batting average and an 0.97 WHIP.