LOS ANGELES – In a huge win for the Cal baseball program, Lucas Erceg homered in the sixth inning and Nick Halamandaris later followed with a clutch RBI single, while Golden Bear pitching held on for an impressive 2-0 shutout of No. 3-ranked UCLA Thursday night at Jackie Robinson Stadium.

Sophomore right-hander Daulton Jefferies (4-2) produced the key win for David Esquer's squad, throwing 6.2 innings with seven hits, no runs, one walk and four strikeouts. Senior Dylan Nelson picked up his fifth save of the season, throwing the ninth inning with a pair of strikeouts. With the victory, Cal is now 23-11 and 10-6 in the Pac-12, while the league-leading Bruins fall to 26-8 and 12-4.

Cal scored twice in the top of the sixth inning when sophomore third baseman Erceg homered over the right field fence off of UCLA's ace James Kaprielian (7-3, 6.0 innings, six hits, two runs, one earned run, two walks, 11 strikeouts). Freshman catcher Brett Cumberland and senior first baseman Chris Paul followed with back-to-back singles, and then junior designated hitter Nick Halamandaris had a clutch RBI single through the middle of the infield to score Cumberland, giving the Bears all the runs they would need.

Besides the outstanding pitching of Jefferies and Nelson, senior Chris Muse-Fisher came in to get the final out in the seventh inning with a strikeout, and sophomore right-hander Alex Schick pitched the eighth with no hits and a strikeout.

Cal will battle the Bruins in the second game of the three-game series at 4 p.m. Friday, and then conclude the series Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. All three games of the series are shown on the Pac-12 Networks. The Bears' win over the No. 3 Bruins is its third win of the year over a Top 10 ranked team, defeating then No. 8 Oregon twice to open Pac-12 play in mid-March.