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Winless in 11 games in Pac-10 play and down by one run going into the eighth inning at home against Cal, it certainly would not have been surprising to see the UCLA baseball team go down meekly in defeat.

But the Bruins’ bats rose up, starting with Will Penniall’s game-tying home run and ending with Mike Metzger’s game-winning single, propelling the Bruins to a 4-2 victory over the Bears to take one out of three in the series.

“It’s nice to get the monkey off our back in conference,” coach John Savage said.

The proverbial monkey looked like a gorilla after starter Brant Rustich, who pitched brilliantly for seven innings, nearly threw the game away with some shoddy fielding.

With the score tied 1-1 in the top of the seventh, Rustich stumbled when picking up a Mike Van Winden sacrifice bunt and throwing high to first on a play that seemed like a sure out. The error, which was issued to first baseman Matt Sharp, gave the Bears runners on first and third with no one out instead of a runner on second with one out.

Rustich then threw a wild pitch that scored James Holder and gave the Bears the lead. But unlike previous Bruin games that started close and ended in blowouts, Rustich bore down and retired the next three hitters to get out of the inning and keep the game close for his teammates. The performance from the 6-foot-6 right-hander drew comparisons to his complete game versus Cal State Northridge on February 13.

“He got back to what he showed during that game,” Savage said. “He threw his breaking ball for strikes and had command of three pitches. It was basic pitching.”

Cal starter Michael Cooper matched Rustich pitch for pitch and left after six innings, only giving up a Josh Roenicke RBI single.

He turned the ball over to reliever Matt Swanson, who got through the seventh inning quickly but ran into trouble in the eighth. The first batter was Penniall, who took Swanson to a full count before crushing a fastball over the right field wall for his first home run of the season.

“I was definitely looking fastball with a full count and I got a good pitch to hit,” Penniall said.

Swanson was taken out one batter later after giving up a single to Chris Jensen, but lefty closer Travis Talbott could not close out the inning.

With runners on second and third and two outs, Savage brought in Mike Metzger to pinch hit for Sharp, who had struggled against left-handed pitching.

After four consecutive sliders and a 2-2 count, Metzger sharply grounded Talbott’s fifth slider up the middle to score both runners and break the deadlock.

“They had been consistent with the sliders and I knew another was coming,” said Metzger, who only had 11 hits in 47 at-bats this year.

Brian Schroeder (2-5) pitched a perfect eighth and ninth innings to earn the win for the jubilant Bruins.

In the first two games of the series, the Bruins were close but could not pull out victories over the Bears. On Friday a five-run eighth inning blew open a 2-1 game as Cal prevailed 7-1. Saturday saw a five-run second inning for the Bears and they held off a UCLA comeback to win 6-4.