This post was updated May 24 at 5:41 p.m.
The comeback kids did it again.
No. 1 seed UCLA (51-6, 28-2 Big Ten) bested No. 3 seed Oregon (40-16, 20-10) 3-2 in 11 innings to win the Big Ten championship, achieving its third walk-off victory of the conference tournament in just as many days.
With the bases loaded and the score tied 2-2 in the bottom of the 11th, Oregon right-hander Devin Bell sailed a fastball high and tight to junior infielder Phoenix Call, which the home plate umpire ruled as a hit-by-pitch. The call on the field stood after a lengthy replay review, giving the Bruins their first Big Ten tournament championship in program history.
“We’ve done it before, so we always know we can do it again,” said redshirt junior outfielder Payton Brennan. “It’s not one person. It’s a team game. If we get one guy on, someone is going to do a job, and you trust the other guy.”
Oregon gave UCLA its toughest test of the regular season. After the Bruins bested the Ducks in run-rule fashion May 8, the latter came back to win 9-6 Saturday, before taking a 6-1 lead Sunday, a lead the Bruins would eventually squash with eight unanswered runs to salvage the series victory.
Amid rain delays Friday, Oregon did not play its original quarterfinal game and was forced to beat both No. 11 seed Washington and No. 2 seed Nebraska on Saturday to reach the championship game. The Ducks blasted eight home runs across the two games, beating the Huskies 9-4 and the Cornhuskers 8-0.
Freshman right-hander Angel Cervantes replaced junior right-hander Landon Stump in the weekend rotation for UCLA’s final regular-season series against Washington, after Cervantes served as the midweek starter for the first 12 weeks of the season. During the regular-season series against the Ducks, Cervantes threw two shutout innings in relief. Coach John Savage stuck with him as Sunday’s starting pitcher.
“When coach Savage told me, it was a dream come true, obviously,” Cervantes said. “The second weekend start in Omaha is something every kid dreams of.”
The right-hander mixed four pitches – a fastball, changeup, sweeper and curveball – each of which he threw at least seven times. Throughout the first four innings, only two Duck runners reached scoring position.
Left-hander Miles Gosztola struck out nine Bruins and allowed just two runs across 5.1 innings May 10 and was similarly effective in the championship game.
UCLA struck in the bottom of the fourth, jump-started by a seven-pitch walk from Brennan – his second free pass of the afternoon. Junior outfielder Will Gasparino then dug out a sweeping slider, driving the ball down the left field line and legging out an RBI triple to put the Bruins ahead 1-0.
Junior catcher Cashel Dugger jammed a ground ball on the next pitch to a drawn-in third baseman, Drew Smith, who fired home to catch Gasparino in a pickle. After three back-and-forth throws, Gasparino retreated back to third base, where he collided with Smith and struck him with a high elbow. Umpires decided it was malicious contact after replay review, ejecting Gasparino and suspending him for the first game of next weekend’s NCAA regional.
“It’s a tough one,” Brennan said. ”He’s trying to stay in the rundown. It’s baseball. Hopefully nothing too bad in the postseason happens because of it. We want Will on the field.”
Cervantes entered the fifth inning with 71 pitches thrown. His season-high had been 70 entering the conference championship.
After two quick outs, second baseman Ryan Cooney laced a single on a high-and-inside fastball, before right fielder Angel Laya fouled three pitches off en route to an eight-pitch walk. Cervantes then walked Smith on five pitches.
With redshirt senior left-hander Ian May warming up and Cervantes at 88 pitches, Savage took a visit to the mound but opted to stick with his starting pitcher.
The former MLB second-round draft pick threw a changeup to induce an inning-ending groundout to Call, who was shifted to the left side of the infield. His throw forced first baseman Mulivai Levu to stretch across his body and scoop the ball out of the dirt, keeping the Bruins’ 1-0 lead.
“The biggest thing was to get ahead, stay ahead,” Cervantes said. “That’s something I keep in my mind the whole time – getting the first-pitch strike and going pitch by pitch.”
Savage turned to junior right-hander Justin Lee in the sixth inning, and Oregon’s heavy-hitting lineup emerged. Catcher Burke-Lee Mabeus turned around a 95 mile per hour fastball well beyond the right field fence to tie the game, staring down Lee as he trotted the bases.
The Ducks took the lead the very next batter.
Lee left a changeup hanging over the middle of the plate, and designated hitter Naulivou Lauaki Jr. blasted the pitch a third of the way up the left field bleachers.
After five strong innings from Gosztola, Oregon turned to right-hander Collin Clarke – one of its premier starting pitchers during the regular season – out of the bullpen in the sixth inning
Brennan, who laced a double off the junior pitcher in the regular season, worked another strong at-bat after falling behind 0-2. With one out, he roped a line-drive triple into the outfield, which left-fielder Jax Gimenez misplayed, allowing the ball to roll all the way to the wall.
Replacing Gasparino sixth in the lineup, senior outfielder Jarrod Hocking was punched out swinging, and a flyout from Dugger ended the inning with the Ducks still leading.
Savage deployed Stump out of the bullpen, who shut out Oregon through the seventh and eighth innings, but the UCLA lineup went three-up, three-down in the bottom half of each inning. Sophomore closer Easton Hawk stifled the Ducks once more, giving the Bruins a final chance to tie the game.
For the fourth time in the afternoon, Brennan reached base, a four-pitch walk in this case. Hocking put down a sacrifice bunt to move the runner into scoring position, but redshirt sophomore outfielder Aidan Espinoza was UCLA’s last hope after Dugger recorded a full-count strikeout.
Right-hander Tanner Bradley spun a slider over the middle of the plate, and Espinoza roped the ball into right field.
For the eighth time this season, the outfielder came up with a critical pinch-hit knock, which tied the contest in the final frame.
Hawk struck out two and worked around a two-out single to bring up the top of the Bruin lineup in the bottom of the 10th. After using his legs to beat out two infield singles earlier in the game, junior shortstop Roch Cholowsky laced a one-out ground ball through the right side of the infield, putting the potential walk-off run on first base.
But on the very next pitch, he strayed too far away from first base on a Levu line drive, ending the 10th on a double play.
Hawk continued his dominance into the 11th inning, adding two more strikeouts to his ledger.
And in the bottom of the frame, UCLA cemented the victory. Junior infielder Roman Martin lined a base hit into right field, putting runners at first and second and matched by Brennan for his fifth time reaching base Sunday.
Hocking bunted once again, sending the ball back to Bell on the mound, who turned and fired to third in an attempt to nab the lead runner, Martin. The third-base umpire ruled Martin safe, and replay review upheld the call.
Bell struck out Dugger and Espinoza on sharp sliders to respond.
But with the title on the line, a fastball slipped from Bell’s fingers, barely grazing Call for a hit-by-pitch that secured UCLA’s conference championship triumph.
“That’s the one thing about a lot of these guys. They have really good heart rates, and they have a lot of confidence,” Savage said after UCLA’s 7-5 victory against USC on Saturday. “They’re a family. They believe in one another. Whoever is in the batter’s box and whoever’s on the mound, there’s a lot of trust and a lot of belief.”
