LOS ANGELES — In the first official Pac-12 heavyweight showdown, No. 9 UCLA took the weekend finale Sunday evening to take the series against No. 11 Arizona State.
The Sun Devils (12-7, 1-2) won the first game of Sunday’s doubleheader 4-3 behind seven strong innings of one-run ball from Trevor Williams, who improved to 5-0 on the season. In the second game, it was UCLA freshman Grant Watson (6 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 3 K) that improved to 5-0, propelling the Bruins (15-4, 2-1) to a 4-2 win.
Both projected starting pitchers had to be scratched prior to the beginning of the game due to arm soreness/stiffness, forcing Watson and Arizona State’s Alex Blackford into emergency starts. After having thrown in relief during the day’s first game, Blackford struggled in his second outing of the day. He was erratic, walking three batters in the process of allowing three runs in 1 1/3 innings.
Watson, however, took the ball and ran with it. He picked right up where he left off from UCLA’s midweek win over USC in the Dodgertown Classic when he earned the win with only one earned run in six innings pitched.
The Bruins gave Watson an early cushion Sunday, scoring three runs in the second inning. Beau Amaral singled home a run and runs scored on a wild pitch and a ground out.
Arizona State got a pair back in the fourth inning when two leadoff walks came around to score, but that was as close as the Sun Devils would get. The Bruins added an insurance run in the sixth inning when Amaral led off with a walk. He twice stole second base, being forced to go back on a batter’s interference call on the first theft, and then came around to score on a shallow single by Jeff Gelalich to make it 4-2.
The Sun Devils got the tying run on base in both the seventh and eighth innings, getting runners on second and third with no outs in the eighth, but were not able to capitalize in either inning. In the final frame, Scott Griggs collected his fifth save of the season with a 1-2-3 inning.
Check out the full photo gallery from the second matchup of UCLA/Arizona State’s Sunday doubleheader below:
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