The Racers’ Cinderella magic wasn’t enough to turn the Bruin beast into a prince in Omaha, Nebraska, on Saturday.
Instead, in its first 2025 Men’s College World Series contest, No. 15 seed UCLA baseball (48-16, 22-8 Big Ten) defeated Murray State (44-16, 17-8 Missouri Valley) 6-4 at Charles Schwab Field. The Racers shutout the Bruins over the final five frames of the affair, but couldn’t overcome the 6-0 deficit they had already endured by that point.
“At the end of the day, it was a good team win,” said coach John Savage. “First game of, hopefully, a long tournament … A lot of noise, I thought we handled all that pretty well.”
And even though UCLA played as the home team Saturday, as just one of five seeded programs left in the tournament, the crowd seemed to tilt in favor of underdog Murray State, just the fourth team to make it to Omaha after being the No. 4 seed in its regional.
But with patience at the plate, timely hitting and slick defense, the Bruins first return to the MCWS in 12 years looked like a microcosm of the success they’ve enjoyed all season.
For the fifth time in six games this postseason, the Bruins scored first – not through their offensive power, but rather through their patience. Three of the first four batters walked, with a bases-loaded free pass to sophomore third baseman Roman Martin forcing in the first run of the game.
After a bit of small ball – a fourth-inning safety squeeze from sophomore shortstop Roch Cholowsky, who won the Brooks Wallace Award on Friday and made the decision to bunt on his own, Savage said – the Bruins found themselves up 3-0 before the offense truly exploded.
Later in the fourth, third baseman Roman Martin’s single drove home his 12th RBI of the postseason before redshirt senior right fielder AJ Salgado’s two-RBI double put the Bruins up by six, with seven of the team’s nine hitters recording a hit by the end of the frame.
“Those pitchers have a lot of success, and we know that,” Martin said. “Sticking to our plan and trying to outlast guys – keeping it pitch to pitch – that’s always huge when you’re facing a guy like that (Racers’ right-hander starter Nic Schutte).”
In line with the Bruins’ postseason thus far, Cholowsky was far from the center of the team’s offense. The shortstop remains without an extra base hit in the national tournament after hitting 19 doubles, a triple and 23 long balls across the regular season and Big Ten tournament.
One of the central players for the Bruins today was sophomore left-fielder Dean West, who went 2-for-4 with a walk, two runs and an RBI. West also was key on the defensive side of the ball, making a diving catch to end the fifth inning when the Racers had runners on first and second.
“It’s just a lot of trust in myself, and then the approach that our coach gives us in the beginning of the game, and kind of just sticking to it and just believing in it,” West said.
While UCLA struggled to put bat to ball in the latter half of the game, Murray State was able to find some offensive footing.
On the other side of the ball, junior right-hander Michael Barnett almost lasted five innings, coming up one batter short of reaching the mark after getting pulled due to leg cramps. Barnett labored throughout his 4.2 frames, reaching seven three-ball counts. Despite allowing three hits and walking four, the right-hander limited the Racers to one run, striking out four.
Freshman right-hander Wylan Moss was the first out of the bullpen, despite last appearing as the team’s starter in the regional final. Moss, who’s been limited by back issues in the latter half of the season, was pulled after just five pitches – facing three hitters and giving up two hits.
Savage turned to four relievers to get through the final four frames. Redshirt junior southpaw Ian May made his first appearance since the Los Angeles Regional, picking up his eighth win of the year, while junior right-hander Jack O’Connor struggled in the seventh – giving up two hits in just 0.2 innings pitched.
Graduate student right-hander and setup man August Souza gave up two runs in his inning and a third – with the Bruins’ lead dwindling to two – before freshman right-hander Easton Hawk shut the door with his eighth save of the year, striking out two in the ninth.
“We pitched out some problems today,” Savage said. “We got ourselves into some problems, the bullpen did.”
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After Saturday’s win kept it from dropping to the loser’s bracket, UCLA will face the winner of Saturday night’s contest between SEC juggernauts and MCWS favorites No. 3 seed Arkansas and No. 6 seed LSU on Monday at 4pm.
