April 8, 2004

Box Score

TUCSON, Ariz.- The Arizona bullpen blew its first save of the season as UCLA scored four runs in the ninth inning to beat the Wildcats 9-7 in the three-game Pac-10 series opener at Kindall Field on Thursday.

The loss, Arizona second straight, wasted a 4 for 5, two home run and six RBI-night by sophomore Jordan Brown and dropped the Wildcats to 15-13-1 for the year and to 4-3 in the Pac-10. UCLA won its third straight game to improve to 17-13 overall and even in conference play at 2-2.

Trailing 6-5 after eight innings, the Bruins rallied to steal the game on four hits and a costly fielding error in the final frame. Mike Svetlic started the Bruin comeback with an infield single to third to lead off the inning. He moved to second on a wild pitch by reliever Mark Melancon and came around the tie the score on a single by Matt Thayer.

After Ryan McCarthy advanced Thayer to second with a sacrifice bunt, Melancon hit Brett McMillan with a pitch to place runners on second and third with one out.

Arizona head coach Andy Lopez replaced Melancon with closer Derek Rodriguez to face UCLA third baseman Preston Griffin. The move appeared to have worked as the Bruin senior grounded a ball to Moises Duran at third. Duran misplayed the potential double play ball, allowing it to squirt under his glove for an error and load the bases for junior Wes Whisler.

Whisler made the Wildcats pay with a two-run single to right to give UCLA an 8-6 lead. Josh Roenicke tacked on another for the Bruins for a three-run cushion with a double down the left field line to score Griffin before Rodriguez finally ended the inning on a gournd out by Chris Denove..

The Wildcats attempted to rally in the ninth as Brown scored Jeff Van Houten for his sixth RBI of the game with a two-out single to center, but Duran flied out to center in the next at bat to end the game.

Melancon (4-3) was charged with the loss after giving up three runs on two hits in 1 1/3 innings of work. UCLA's Brant Rustich improved to 3-0 on the season with 2 1/3 innings of relief.

Brown, who was coming off a 2 for 14 series at Oregon State last weekend, finished his career night with the first multi-homer game of the season for Arizona. The sophomore launched a two-run shot, his first of the year, in the bottom of the fourth to put Arizona on the score board and added another two-run blast in the seventh to hand Arizona its ill-fated 6-5 lead.

UCLA jumped out to an early four-run lead off of UA starter Koley Kolberg with three runs in the first and one in the third.

Arizona and UCLA will meet up for game two of the series on Friday. First pitch is set for 7 pm.