LOS ANGELES — UCLA completed a three-game sweep of Nebraska on Saturday at Jackie Robinson Stadium, beating the Huskers 5-4 on Tyler Rahmatulla's one-out sacrifice fly in the ninth inning.

Rahmatulla's fly ball to center field scored Dean Espy on the first pitch after NU closer Mike Nesseth entered to relieve Jordan Roualdes. Espy singled to lead off the ninth against Casey Hauptman, who had kept the Bruins off the scoreboard after replacing Tom Lemke in the second inning.

“Casey was outstanding,” NU coach Mike Anderson said. “He's earned opportunities.”

After Espy's single, Roualdes mishandled a bunt by Steve Rodriguez before Beau Amaral moved the winning run to third base with a sacrifice.

No. 19 UCLA improved to 9-0. It swept the Huskers 13-1 and 5-3 on Friday. NU dropped to 3-7, losing for the fourth time in its opponent's final at-bat.

NU is scheduled to play its home opener Wednesday at 1:35 p.m. against the University of Nebraska at Kearney.

Nebraska struck out a school-record 19 times Saturday against five pitchers. Left-handed starter Rob Rasmussen recorded 10 strikeouts in five innings and left with a 4-1 lead.

NU fought back to tie it with three runs in the eighth inning on two-out hits by Boomer Collins and Adam Bailey.

The Huskers led 1-0 in the second inning as Kale Kiser opened with a double and scored on an error.

“I'm glad we fought back, but this team doesn't need moral victories,” Anderson said. “We're going to be OK, but this team needs to figure out ways to win games. The most valuable thing about this stretch are the things we can learn. If we look up halfway through the year and didn't learn from these three weeks, then we will be in trouble.”

Nebraska (3-7)........................010 000 030—4 9 1
At UCLA (9-0)...........................040 000 001—5 11 3
W: Klein 1-0. L: Hauptman, 0-2. 2B: NU, Bailey, Kiser, Cooper. HR: UCLA, Espy.

« Sports - Big Red Today

Share