OMAHA, Neb. -- Roman Martin and AJ Salgado drove in two runs apiece to lead UCLA to a 6-4 victory over a Murray State team making its Men's College World Series debut Saturday.
The Bruins, in the MCWS for the first time since they won the championship in 2013, built a 6-0 lead before the Racers began chipping away at it in the middle innings. UCLA closer Easton Hawk pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to secure the Bruins' fourth straight win in an Omaha opener.
"It's one game in a four-team bracket," UCLA coach John Savage said. "Yeah, you want to win the first game, no question about it. But we've got a long, long ways to go."
UCLA (48-16) will play Monday night against No. 6 national seed LSU, which beat No. 3 Arkansas on Saturday night.
The Missouri Valley Conference's Racers (44-16), only the fourth No. 4 regional seed since 1999 to advance to the MCWS, will try to keep their first appearance going when they play Arkansas in an elimination game Monday.
Ian May (8-3), the second of five relievers who followed starter Michael Barnett, pitched an inning to earn the win.
The Bruins were in full control early and improved to 27-1 when scoring first. They loaded the bases with no outs in the first inning against Nic Schutte (8-5). He gave up a hit and issued three walks before he settled down and got back-to-back strikeouts and a groundout to keep it 1-0.
Dean West singled in another run in the second, and the Bruins added four more in the fourth on a safety squeeze bunt, base hit and Salgado's two-run double.
"Murray State is very competitive," Savage said. "We knew when we put up a 4 in the fourth, they probably wouldn't blink an eye, and they didn't. They kept battling back. It wasn't an easy victory. We pitched out of some problems today."
Murray State ended the UCLA pitching staff's streak of 20⅔ scoreless innings when a sliding Jonathan Hogart beat Salgado's throw to the plate on Carson Garner's drive into right field in the fifth. Before that, the Bruins hadn't allowed a run since the second inning of their super regional opener against UTSA.
The Racers added a run in the sixth and two more in the eighth after putting runners on second and third with no outs. Consecutive RBI groundouts pulled them within 6-4.
"It's Omaha. You expect trouble," Savage said. "If you're not expecting trouble, you'll be out of here pretty quick. So you better be able to pitch with traffic and pitch out of problems. That's the nature of championship baseball."
Hawk went to the mound in the ninth with a two-run lead and facing the heart of the Racers' order. He struck out Dustin Mercer, got Garner to ground out and fanned Dominic Decker to earn his eighth save.
"So happy these guys get to experience this and play on this stage and show the whole country that they belong," Racers coach Dan Skirka said. "Obviously, we didn't come out victorious, but I couldn't be more proud of the fight they showed. They jumped on us early and we weren't able to get that knock.
"But I never had a doubt that these guys were going to keep fighting, scrapping, clawing and giving us a chance in the end. That's exactly what they did."
LSU 4, Arkansas 1
Kade Anderson limited Arkansas' high-powered offense to three hits and a run in seven-plus innings, LSU knocked Razorbacks ace Zach Root out of the game early and the Tigers beat the rival Razorbacks 4-1 in the Men's College World Series on Saturday night.
Anderson, a projected top-five overall pick in the MLB amateur draft next month, kept Arkansas batters off-balance with his four-pitch mix and struck out seven to become the national leader with 170.
"Outstanding performance, one we've been accustomed to on opening night of every weekend," LSU coach Jay Johnson said. "He got stronger as the game went along, and he executed pitches at a high level, which you have to do against that offense. Offensively, we did just enough."
LSU (49-15), which won the SEC regular-season series against the Razorbacks in Baton Rouge last month, improved to 4-0 in all-time MCWS meetings. The Tigers will play UCLA on Monday night as they continue their bid to win a second national title in three years. Arkansas (48-14), in its 12th MCWS and looking for its first championship, meets Murray State in an elimination game Monday.
"Obviously, we need to move on from this one and get over it and not think too far down the road," Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said. "We have to take care of business Monday because if we don't, there's no Tuesday. You can't get all uptight about it. These guys have come back and won games. They've done some great things this year."
The matchup between the No. 3 national seed Razorbacks and No. 6 Tigers marked the first time since the NCAA tournament went to its current format in 1999 that the highest remaining seeds have met in their CWS opener.
The Tigers were up 3-0 in the second inning after Root (8-6) issued two walks and allowed a bunt single to Daniel Dickinson to load the bases. Chris Stanfield singled in a run and another was forced in when Root plunked Michael Braswell III in the foot. The third came home when Josh Pearson grounded to short and beat the relay throw to first on the double-play attempt.
That was all for Root, whose 1 2/3 innings marked his shortest start of the season.
"When you're facing that caliber of arms, you aren't going to get a ton (of runs) maybe like you would playing in SEC ballparks where home runs are a real thing with every pitch of the game," Johnson said. "We did an excellent job setting the table. I've coached enough games here to know getting the lead is really important."
Van Horn said it was a hard decision to take out Root.
"The game was about to get out of hand," Van Horn said. "Yeah, it's early. The wind was blowing in. Scoring a lot of runs against Anderson, to me, was something that wasn't going to happen. I hated to do it, but I felt like it was the right decision and I'll stand by it."
Gabe Gaeckle, who moved to the bullpen after making nine starts, kept his team in the game. He allowed just three hits, and his 10 strikeouts and six innings were career highs.
Gaeckle left with two outs and a runner on second in the eighth. Cole Gibler came on and Derek Curiel sent his 0-2 pitch to left for an insurance run.
Anderson (11-1) held the Razorbacks scoreless until the sixth when Reese Robinett connected for his third homer of the season.
"Real cool moment," Anderson said of his night. "Just taking it all in. That's why you come here. Really proud of our team. Doesn't matter the stat line. We won the game and that's all I really care about."
The left-hander from tiny Madisonville, Louisiana, went seven innings for the third straight start and departed after Cam Kozeal singled leading off the eighth. Chase Shores retired three straight and turned things over to freshman Casan Evans in the ninth. Evans worked around Charles Davalan's leadoff single to finish off the Razorbacks.
The full house of more than 25,000 was evenly split between the fan bases. Well before first pitch, Arkansas fans countered passionate "L-S-U" chants by raising their arms and doing the Hog call: "Wooooooooo. Pig. Sooie!"
Influencer and former LSU gymnast Livvy Dunne was in the front row in a half-LSU, half-Pittsburgh Pirates No. 30 jersey with the name of her boyfriend, Paul Skenes, on the back. Skenes pitched on LSU's 2023 title team before he made his fast rise in the majors.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.