Gerrit Cole struck out 13 and carried a one-hitter into the seventh inning, and Cody Regis and Jeff Gelalich homered to lead UCLA to a 6-3 victory over TCU in a winners' bracket game at the College World Series on Monday night.
The win gives UCLA control of Bracket 1 and three days off. The Horned Frogs will play Florida State in an elimination game Wednesday, with the winner meeting the Bruins on Friday.
The Bruins (50-14) went ahead 5-0 in the third inning on Regis and Gelalich's home runs against TCU starter Kyle Winkler (12-2). Regis' two-run homer was his ninth of the season, with all coming since May 7. Two batters later, Gelalich followed with his second homer.
The Horned Frogs (52-13), who came into the game hitting a CWS-best .341, scored three runs on four hits in the seventh inning off Cole (11-3).
The New York Yankees' 2009 first-round draft pick allowed Matt Curry's base hit to right leading off the second and didn't give up another until Jason Coats' hard grounder past first baseman Justin Uribe with one out in the seventh.
After Curry and Jantzen Witte followed with singles to load the bases, the pro-TCU crowd rose as Cole ran the count full against Taylor Featherston. Featherston fouled one off before ripping a two-out triple beyond the reach of diving center fielder Beau Amaral. The ball rolled to the wall in left-center, and the Frogs were within 5-3.
Cole, 6 feet 4, 220 pounds, who regularly touched the mid-90s with his fastball, pitched a scoreless eighth before turning the game over to closer Dan Klein, who earned his 10th save.
Cole allowed five hits, walked two and hit a batter. He has given up five or fewer hits in 13 of his 18 starts.
The Bruins, who scored in eight innings of their 11-3 win over Florida on Saturday, got runs each of the first three against Winkler.
Winkler, who pitched 7 2/3 shutout innings against Texas in the super-regional final, was charged with five runs in 2 1/3 innings.
Amaral went 3-for-3 and reached base four times, with an RBI and two runs scored. He has reached on nine of his 10 plate appearances in the CWS and is batting .516 (16 for 31) in the NCAA tournament.
