UCLA baseball winning streak at eight after sweep at Washington State

The UCLA Bruins baseball team is sitting in first place after improving to 8-1 in Pac-12 Conference play following a weekend series sweep at Washington State. The No. 7 Bruins (21-5) won their eighth straight game, coming from behind for an 8-4 victory Sunday.

After a pair of errors helped the Cougars score three unearned runs in the first inning, UCLA starting pitcher Griffin Canning settled in and retired 16 of the last 17 batters he faced. Canning gave up four hits in six innings and picked up his fifth win of the season after the Bruins offense scored a pair of runs in the top of the seventh inning to give UCLA a 4-3 lead.

The Bruins added two runs in each of the final two innings with Ty Moore singling home two in the eighth and Christoph Bono doubling home two in the ninth. For Moore, it was just a continuation of a hot week that saw him drive in at least one run in each of the Bruins’ four games. He finished with three RBIs Sunday and nine for the week.

Moore also had the final RBI in UCLA’s three-run sixth inning on Friday night, which proved critical. The Bruins held on for a 4-3 win with ace James Kaprelian improving to 5-1. He gave up four hits and three runs in eight innings before turning the ball over to closer David Berg, who pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning for his fifth save of the season.

Berg repeated his 1-2-3, two-strikeout performance on Saturday and pitched the final two innings on Sunday without surrendering a hit to earn another save.

Saturday’s matchup was scoreless through five innings, but then the Bruins produced back-to-back three-run innings. Luke Persico had a two-run double and finished the game three for four.

Kevin Kramer had four hits on the weekend and has now reached base in 13 consecutive games, but saw his batting average dip to .410.

UCLA returns to Los Angeles where it will host defending Pac-12 champion Oregon State for a three-game set beginning at 7 p.m. Thursday.