Saint Mary’s upsets No. 1 UCLA twice in three days to finish off the Bruins in dramatic fashion
Saint Mary’s upsets No. 1 UCLA twice in three days to eliminate the Bruins in surprising fashion appeared in Sporting News. Add Sports News as a Favorite Source by clicking here.
Heading into the college baseball postseason, no team had higher expectations than the UCLA Bruins.
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Armed with Roch Cholowsky, the No. 1 catcher favorite in the MLB Draft in July, UCLA earned the top overall seed in the postseason. The Bruins went 51-6 in the regular season and 28-2 in the Big Ten conference, allowing them to carry at least one district and making them a team to beat on the road to the College World Series.
Instead, UCLA ran into the Saint Mary’s Gaels, who eliminated the Bruins in three days. As a result, UCLA’s season ends on a disappointing note as the Bruins wonder what could have been.
Here’s how Saint Mary’s sent the Bruins home.
A LOT: Updated super regionals tracker
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How Saint Mary’s eliminated UCLA
As the top seed in their region, UCLA’s first postseason game on Friday came against the No. 4 seed in the Los Angeles region: Saint Mary’s. While many expected a rout, the Gaels kept it close, as UCLA scored just two runs in nine innings.
Saint Mary’s had the same score in the eighth, but that changed in the top of the ninth. With Bruins pitcher Easton Hawk on the mound, Gaels DH Jacob Johnson went deep for a 3-2 lead. In the bottom of the inning, with a man on first, Cam Staton got Roch Cholowsky to fly out to end the game, making UCLA the first No. 1 seed ever to lose its regional opener.
However, districts are eliminated twice, so UCLA stayed alive, albeit without a margin of error. The Bruins beat Virginia Tech on Saturday to stay alive, and with Saint Mary’s falling to Cal Poly, they set up a rematch Sunday afternoon in Los Angeles.
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This time, UCLA took a 5-2 lead in the top of the fifth inning, but the Gaels kept fighting. Saint Mary’s scored one run in the fifth and sixth innings, but still fell short of tying the game at nine.
After UCLA loaded the bases in the top of the ninth, Saint Mary’s had three outs to tie the game. Teh Gaels got a leadoff single, and after UCLA got two outs when a runner advanced to second, Ian Armstrong hit a chopper that found space, allowing Saint Mary’s to tie the game at five.
In extra innings, Saint Mary’s held the Bruins scoreless in the top of the 10th, giving the Gaels a chance to win it in the bottom of the inning. Cody Kashimoto reached on an infield single with one out, and after advancing to second on a fielder’s choice, Makoa Sniffen brought him home with one out.
The result meant the Bruins became the second straight No. 1 overall seed to fail to reach the at-large regionals. Meanwhile, Saint Mary’s must beat Cal Poly twice to win the Los Angeles regional.
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High seed loss in areas
UCLA becomes the fifth ever No. 1 overall seed to lose in the regionals, and the second Bruins team to do so. Previously, UCLA lost as a No. 1 seed. 1 overall in the region in 2015, while Vanderbilt and Oregon State made up the other three spots.
However, unlike the first three times this happened, UCLA in 2026 and Vanderbilt in 2025 each failed to even reach the regional finals.
After making the College World Series last year, the Bruins failed to return to Omaha this time around.
