It was a Bruin career few could watch start, and even fewer knew when it was at its end.
Cameron Kim – a former member of the Bruins’ No. 1 recruiting class in 2023 – will return to Jackie Robinson Stadium for the first time since transferring when No. 1 UCLA baseball (9-2) hosts Cal State Fullerton (4-7) Tuesday.
“My teammates bring up to me, and I definitely have it in the back of my mind,” Kim said. “My parents bring it up a lot, and I spent two years there (at UCLA). … I have a really close bond with a lot of those guys, but at the end of the day, I’m ready to compete against them with the team I’m on now, and I feel like we could do it. So I’m excited.”
Kim’s first at-bat as a Bruin came in 2024’s season opener against Gonzaga. In an untelevised game, Kim pinch-hit for then-freshman left fielder Dean West and delivered a game-tying single in the bottom of the eighth.
His last hit in the blue and gold also came at Jackie Robinson Stadium. UCLA faced an 8-7 deficit heading into the bottom of the ninth – after blowing a 5-1 lead to Loyola Marymount – before Kim delivered the game-winning single on March 25, 2025.
In two years at UCLA, Kim started just 17 games, stepped up to the plate just 79 times and had a .569 OPS.
Part of his lack of opportunity likely stemmed from competing for infield spots alongside juniors first baseman Mulivai Levu, second baseman Phoenix Call, third baseman Roman Martin and shortstop Roch Cholowsky.
But it also resulted from Kim’s academic ineligibility, which caused him to miss the final 39 games – or nearly 60% – of the Bruins’ 2025 season.
MLB.com’s No. 247 draft prospect in 2023 announced his entrance into the transfer portal on social media June 2 – just a day after UCLA won its NCAA regional.
Notably, then-junior right-hander Cody Delvecchio – who, like Kim, became academically ineligible around the start of UCLA’s spring quarter – returned during the Men’s College World Series, where he started the team’s elimination game against No. 3 seed Arkansas.
After slashing .122/.150/.122 across 74 at-bats in the Cape Cod Baseball League in 2024, Kim spent the following summer in the Appalachian League, where he had the 13th-best OPS with a .321/.403/.522 slash line across 134 at-bats.
“I realized that I still had a chip on my shoulder,” Kim said. “I still wanted to compete and, not only prove to other people, but prove to myself that I was still capable of being one of the top guys in the country.”
Kim’s search for greener pastures landed him at Fullerton.
Once a baseball powerhouse, Fullerton has won four national titles and made the MCWS 18 times, with its last coming in 2004 and 2017, respectively.
The Titan said he watched the 2017 run as a kid and, as a freshman in high school, Fullerton was one of the first programs to extend an offer.
“When I hit the portal,” Kim said. “The biggest thing for me was obviously going and getting playing time. And I feel like they’re a program that keeps their word.”
The Norco High School graduate has started every game for the Titans, with five games at shortstop and six at third. Kim has been consistently featured in the middle of Fullerton’s lineup.
Kim – Perfect Game’s No. 9 shortstop out of California in 2023 – is slashing .295/.354/.409 with five doubles through 50 plate appearances heading into the venue he used to call home.
“There’s always going to be times in this sport where you’re going to get down and it’s going to be hard,” Kim said. “It’s how you overcome those obstacles.”
Kim added that he’s enjoyed how his teammates have come from a variety of athletic journeys – many didn’t get any offers out of high school or played at junior colleges before arriving in Fullerton.
Meanwhile, the infielder’s former team is coming off its second consecutive weekend sweep – its most recent against three ranked SEC opponents.
Last season, UCLA fell to all three SEC teams it faced, including the final two on the same day in Omaha.
While Kim’s former teammates played a vital role in the Bruins’ three games in Arlington, Texas, it was newcomer – and former Longhorn – junior center fielder Will Gasparino that may have caught the most attention.
Gasparino hit 25 home runs across his two seasons in Austin, but has seemingly jumped up several gears since transferring closer to home. The Los Angeles local is 14-for-37 with 10 home runs – tied for most in the nation – this season. In Arlington alone, the center fielder went 5-for-11 with four home runs – all at the Texas Rangers’ Globe Life Field – while hitting eighth in the lineup.
“This is my third head coach in three years,” Gasparino said Friday. “And it feels like a new team every single year with the portal, and this is the one team to truly feel really special. … I could go to dinner with any single kid on the team and it’d feel like my best friend.”
Aidan Espinoza may have also made a name for himself in Texas. The redshirt sophomore outfielder had just one plate appearance this season heading into the Amegy Bank College Baseball Series, where he pinch-hit twice more.
Espinoza’s two-RBI, pinch-hit triple in extra innings was the game winner over then-No. 4 Mississippi State on Sunday – and it moved him to a perfect 3-for-3 on the year.
The pair of third-year outfielders may force coach John Savage and assistant coach Bryant Ward to shake up the lineup and give them bigger roles than bottom-of-the-order bat or pinch hitter, respectively, come Tuesday.
“People probably think I’m crazy hitting him eighth,” Savage said Saturday. “But at the same time, if you have to deal with Gasparino and Cadiz (freshman designated hitter Dominic Cadiz) in the eight hole and nine hole, it’s not easy.”
UCLA made it through the weekend series without needing to send freshmen right-handers Angel Cervantes or Zach Strickland to the mound – likely meaning the duo will serve as tandem starters Tuesday for the third consecutive midweek contest.
Savage called UCLA’s loss to San Diego State on Feb. 24 a trap game, given that the midweek was situated between a sweep of then-No. 7 TCU and the series in Arlington.
The Bruins now get a second chance at avoiding such pitfalls, as the bout against the Titans is their last stop before beginning Big Ten play in Columbus.
And for Kim, it’s an opportunity to show the Bruins what could’ve been.
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