CBD Photo Gallery: Poteet Pitches Bruins Past Irvine, 8-1

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LOS ANGELES — Freshman Cody Poteet pitched a career-high six innings and had a career-high five strikeouts as UCLA took an 8-1 win against UC Irvine Tuesday night at Jackie Robinson Stadium.

Kevin Kramer delivered the big blow in a five-run seventh inning that put the game out of reach. After the first three batters singled and Brian Carroll took a bases-loaded walk to bring home a run, Irvine (28-13) went to Sam Moore, its fifth of six pitchers. Kramer greeted the freshman by smacking his second offering toward left-centerfield.

Speedy centerfielder Dominique Taylor tracked the ball and made a diving attempt, but the ball that started in the direction of centerfield sliced all the way into the gap and landed just out of Taylor’s reach. The ball rolled to the edge of the warning track before left fielder Jeff Stephens could retrieve it and fire it back in. Kramer strolled into third base with a bases-clearing, stand up triple. He came in to score on a wild pitch to the next batter, putting UCLA (28-13) comfortably ahead 8-0.

The Bruins’ patient offensive attack took advantage of seven walks and two hit by pitches issued by Anteater pitchers. UCLA scored it’s first run in the third inning without even getting a hit. A pair of walks loaded the bases after Eric Filia was hit by a pitch and Shane Zeile drove a pitch to right field for a sacrifice fly.

UCLA took a 2-0 lead on a Brenton Allen RBI single in the fifth inning, taking advantage of an error that allowed Zeile to reach. The Bruins added another run the following inning when Kramer hit a leadoff double and scored on Filia’s second hit of the game.

The three runs of support were more than enough for Poteet, who had his best collegiate performance allowing only two hits and no walks while striking out five. He improved to 3-4 while Irvine reliever Evan Brock fell to 1-1.

Kramer finished with two hits and three RBI while Allen had three hits. Five other Bruins players reached base multiple times as well. For an Irvine offense that had only six hits, Chris Rabago and Connor Spencer were the only players with multiple hits. Spencer drove in Rabago for the ‘Eaters only run in the eighth inning.

Check out the 20-shot photo gallery from Tuesday night’s SoCal matchup at the Jack:

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