Bruins knock off the Bulldogs

Published 4:43 am Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Eric Filia drove in a career-high five runs, Nick Vander Tuig limited Mississippi State to five hits in eight innings, and UCLA won its first national championship in baseball with an 8-0 victory Tuesday night.

The Bruins (49-17) completed a two-game sweep in the College World Series finals and ended the season with 11 straight wins. The national title is UCLA’s NCAA-record 109th in team sports.

Vander Tuig held off the Bulldogs (51-20) when they threatened in the fourth, fifth and eighth innings and recorded his fourth win in the NCAA tournament. Vander Tuig (14-4) struck out six and walked one. David Berg pitched the ninth.

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Filia produced runs with a sacrifice fly, squeeze bunt and two base hits as the Bruins collected 12 hits and scored their most runs in 18 games.

Bulldogs starter Luis Pollorena (6-4) lasted one inning.

UCLA allowed four runs in five games to set a CWS record for fewest in the metal-bat era that started in 1974.

The Bruins’ .227 batting average in the CWS also was the lowest since teams went away from wood bats. The Bruins’ 19 runs in four games were the fewest by a champion since the CWS went to eight teams in 1950.

After Arizona’s title last year, the Pac-12 has now won two straight and has 17 in all in baseball, most of any conference.

Mississippi State was playing for its first national title in a team sport and was the sixth straight Southeastern Conference team to make it to the finals.

Vander Tuig, who won his fourth straight postseason start, gave up just one earned run in 21 1-3 innings over his last three starts.

The Bruins won the title in their third CWS appearance in four years and fifth all-time. They had made it to the finals in 2010 and were swept by South Carolina. Last year they went 1-2 in Omaha.

This season they finished third in the Pac-12, behind Oregon State and Oregon, and then got hot in the postseason.

They won three straight at home in regionals and went on the road to upset No. 5 national seed Cal State Fullerton in a two-game super regional.

Once they got to Omaha, the Bruins made themselves at home in spacious TD Ameritrade Park. UCLA produced just enough offense to support its superb pitching and defense in bracket play, and again in Game 1 of the finals.