UCLA baseball scores well in first test

This was nice, but not nearly enough.

Satisfying was far from the feeling among the UCLA players after closing out the Los Angeles Regional with a 6-2 victory over UC Irvine on Sunday night. This was merely a step, albeit an impressive one.

The Bruins hustled through their regional in three games, finally putting away a scrappy Irvine team on Cody Regis’ three-run home run in the eighth inning.

The victory gave the Bruins (46-13) a school record for victories and sent them off to next weekend’s super regional, which is expected to also be at Jackie Robinson Stadium. The team resume, though, still needs some work.

“We’re not satisfied, not yet,” said Rob Rasmussen, who struck out seven batters in six innings.

The stakes increase next weekend. The Bruins have been to the College World Series only twice and have never won a World Series game. Toss into the mix finals this week at UCLA and there is more than enough to occupy some minds.

Yet, the focus was apparent to Coach John Savage.

“I think this team is on a mission,” Savage said. “They know there are big games ahead of them. It was a normal celebration afterward, no dog piles.”

Of course, the Bruins alpha-dog-like pitching staff does make winning a little less of a surprise. Rasmussen (10-2) demonstrated the Bruins’ dominance again Sunday.

Drew Hillman homered in the second inning and Jordan Leyland in the fifth. Otherwise, Rasmussen cruised. The Anteaters had two runners on with one out after Leyland’s homer, but Rasmussen struck out Sean Madigan and Casey Stevenson to end the inning.

Erik Goeddel pitched two scoreless innings and Dan Klein one, as UCLA relievers gave up only one run in eight innings during the regional.

“I just had to keep it close and turn it over to those guys, let them do their thing,” Rasmussen said.

The Bruins’ staff is so deep that Garret Claypool, who is 7-3 with a 2.27 earned-run average as a starter, did little except sun himself this weekend. He was to be the starter if a Monday game was necessary. It wasn’t.

Irvine (39-21) gutted out a 4-3 victory over Louisiana State to advance to play UCLA, and hung around against the Bruins mainly because of five solid innings of relief by Matt Summers, who gave up only two hits. One, though, crushed the Anteaters’ hopes of extending the regional another day. After a walk and hit batter, Regis plowed into the first pitch for his sixth home run of the season.

“Coach [Rick] Vanderhook came over to me and said, ‘This guy is going to give you a fastball on the first pitch, jump on it,’ ” Regis sait. “I did.”

chris.foster@latimes.com

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