SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (Interstat) — Angel Cervantes pitched five dominant hitless innings and UCLA routed UC Santa Barbara 15-3 on Tuesday night at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium, bouncing back from a loss to the same opponent two weeks earlier.

The Bruins improved to 40-4 overall, while the Gauchos fell to 27-15.

Cervantes, a right-hander, allowed one earned run on zero hits over five innings while striking out three. He walked one and hit one batter. In his previous outing April 21 against Hawaii, Cervantes pitched two innings and allowed one earned run on four hits.

The Bruins offense pounded out 15 hits and scored in five of the nine innings. Right fielder Payton Brennan went 2 for 2 with a home run and four RBIs, hitting a solo homer in the fifth inning and adding a two-run double later in the same frame. Shortstop Roch Cholowsky homered in the first inning and finished 2 for 3 with three RBIs. Second baseman Phoenix Call went 2 for 3 with three RBIs, including a two-run double in the first.

UCLA wasted no time taking control. The Bruins sent 11 batters to the plate in the top of the first inning, scoring five runs with two outs. Dean West singled up the middle to open the game, and Cholowsky followed with a two-run homer to left field. After a single by Mulivai Levu and another single by Roman Martin, Cashel Dugger lifted a sacrifice fly to left field. Brennan walked, then Call doubled down the left-field line to bring home two more runs.

The Bruins added a run in the second on a sacrifice fly by Brennan. In the fifth, Brennan led off with a home run to center, and UCLA erupted for six more runs. The inning included a two-run double by Brennan, an RBI single from Cholowsky, an RBI single from Martin and a run-producing fielder’s choice by West.

UCLA’s Ian May pitched two innings of hitless relief, allowing two earned runs on a pair of home runs by Noah Karliner. May struck out three.

The Gauchos scored their first run in the bottom of the fifth when Karliner homered to left field. Karliner, the Gauchos’ right fielder, went 2 for 3 with two home runs and three RBIs. He added a two-run homer in the seventh inning that also scored Nic Husovsky.

Gauchos reliever Chase Hoover pitched 2.1 innings and allowed one earned run on one hit with two strikeouts. UC Santa Barbara used six pitchers in total.

The most important sequence of the game came in the top of the first, when UCLA batted around and built a 5-0 lead. That outburst erased any early momentum the Gauchos hoped to generate, and Cervantes never allowed a hit through five innings, facing just two over the minimum until Karliner’s homer broke up the no-hit bid.

UCLA had lost to UC Santa Barbara 4-0 on April 14 in Westwood, and the Bruins entered Tuesday having split a weekend series with Sacramento State, winning two of three. UC Santa Barbara had dropped two of three at home to Cal State Fullerton over the weekend.

UCLA next opens a three-game series at Michigan State on Friday, while UC Santa Barbara begins a three-game set at Cal State Bakersfield the same day.

Interstat’s game simulator had projected a final score of UCLA 8, UC Santa Barbara 6. Interstat’s ELO system had projected UCLA with a 55.30 percent probability to win.