OMAHA, Neb. — UCLA did its heavy lifting early and held its ground late, a winning combo Saturday afternoon at the College World Series.

A four-run fourth inning led the No. 15 Bruins to a 6-4 win over Murray State in the opener for both teams at Charles Schwab Field Omaha.

It puts UCLA, now 6-0 in the postseason, into Monday’s 4 p.m. PDT winner’s side of Bracket Two, with a showdown against sixth-ranked LSU up next.

“Yeah, you want to win the first game, no question about it,” UCLA coach John Savage said. “But we’ve got a long, long ways to go.”

His club got the always-important opening win thanks to a fast start from the offense — the Bruins tallied runs in three of the first four frames on the way to a 6-0 lead — and some timely outs from the bullpen behind starter Michael Barnett.

The junior sputtered through the first, walking two before getting both a good bounce and a fortunate call to navigate a scoreless opening frame.

UCLA grabbed a lead in the bottom of the inning, but plated just one — a Roman Martin walk with the bases loaded — and left the bases loaded after each of the first four batters reached base against Murray State starter Nic Schutte.

A nation-leading 64th double play of the season got the Bruins out of the second inning, and the offense generated another run in their half on Dean West’s single to right that scored Cashel Dugger.

Barnett again worked into and out of trouble in the third, giving up back-to-back singles to create traffic before getting a pair of flyouts to left.

“He threw up three zeroes. I don’t know if they’ve been the prettiest zeroes, but they’re zeroes,” Savage told ESPN during an interview in the third inning. “At this level, zeroes are zeroes.”

Barnett put up the game’s first 1-2-3 inning in the fourth, needing just 11 pitches to get his team back in the dugout quickly.

And the offense again responded.

Back-to-back singles by Phoenix Call and West set up the Bruins in the fourth before sophomore shortstop Roch Cholowsky laid down a safety squeeze for his team-leading 80th RBI of the year.

Savage said it was a play Cholowsky, who earlier this week was named the Perfect Game Player of the Year, called on his own.

“But you know what, it’s a baseball play,” Savage said. “It led to four runs, kind of the difference in the game.”

After Levu was hit by a pitch, Martin singled to center to drive in his second run of the game and keep the rally going. AJ Salgado brought home two more before the inning was over with a double to right, pushing the lead to 6-0.

Staked to a big lead, Barnett got a pair of quick outs in the fifth. But a two-out single and four-pitch walk by the next two Murray State batters, respectively, ended his outing due to what Savage said were leg cramps.

“Very hot out there today,” Savage said. “I think our guys dealt with that a little bit.”

A Bruin bullpen that hadn’t allowed a hit in 29 at-bats entering the day saw that streak snapped on right-hander Wylan Moss’ second pitch.

Carson Garner singled to right, a run charged to Barnett, to get the Racers on the board. They nearly added more, but West made a diving catch to prevent any additional damage.

Murray State chipped into the lead again in the sixth, with a Luke Mistone single chasing Moss. Will Vierling greeted reliever Ian May with a single of his own, and Tauken flew out to bring in Mistone and make it a 6-2 game.

The Racers had a chance to get closer in the seventh, with Jonathan Hogart and Dustin Mercer starting the inning with singles against Jack O’Connor — the third of five UCLA relievers to throw on Saturday.

But long flyouts by each of the next two batters — including one to the warning track — helped put out the fire before August Souza came on for O’Connor to get the final out of the frame, a lineout to center.