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Mike Svetlic and the UCLA baseball team dropped a tough 6-4 game at No. 17 Wichita State Tuesday.

Coming off Sunday’s dramatic win over USC, UCLA fell to Wichita State 6-4 in a crucial non-league game Tuesday night.

A win over the 17th-ranked Shockers would have helped solidify the Bruins NCAA Tournament resume heading into the season’s final stretch.

Coach Gary Adams put the team’s loss into perspective.

“We take every loss very hard,” Adams said. “It was great to win on Sunday, but that’s over with. We’re not in a position to be satisfied.”

UCLA starter David Johnson continued his impressive pitching in non-league games with a career-high seven strikeouts in 5-1/3 innings.

“Johnson pitched an outstanding game,” Adams said. “He deserved a better fate than he received tonight.”

The Bruins’ 4-0 lead began to crumble in the sixth inning. Johnson left the game with a 4-2 lead after walking two batters, giving up a seeing-eye infield hit, and a two-run single.

After Wichita State made it 4-4 with a two-run seventh, Shockers’ star Drew Moffitt finished the rally with an eighth-inning single to drive in the winning run off of UCLA’s Kyle Wilson.

Offensively, the Bruins were able to muster four runs against highly-touted pitcher Mike Pelfrey on six hits and a collection of Shocker errors .

The Bruins’ offensive surge came in a three-run fifth inning highlighted by shortstop Ryan McCarthy’s two-out single to drive in center fielder Jarrad Page. The bases-loaded single extended McCarthy’s hitting streak to 13 games.

Pelfrey did not allow a run after the fifth inning and fanned 11 Bruins in the process.

The Bruins’ bullpen was unable to match Pelfrey’s strong effort.

The Bruins used seven relief pitchers, including three in both the seventh and eighth innings, despite coming off a taxing series against USC.

“We pitched those guys a lot over the weekend, and this is a tough part of our schedule, so our pitching is a little thin right now,” Adams said.

The Bruins were unable to close the door on the Shockers and fell victim to a comeback inspired by the 4,000 fans in attendance at Eck Stadium.

In a game dominated by baseball’s proverbial “little ball” strategy, the Shockers seemed to get all the bounces in the late innings.

“Truth be known, we played a better game than the other team tonight,” Adams said. “We didn’t make any mistakes on defense, but just didn’t do enough to pull out the victory.”