#15 Seed UCLA Bruins Host UTSA Roadrunners in NCAA Baseball LA Super Regional
The Bruins are playing in their first Super Regional since 2019 and are looking to make their first CWS since they won it all in 2013.
With an 8-5 win over UC Irvine last Sunday, the UCLA baseball team finished off the Los Angeles Regional with perfect 3-0 record. Perhaps more impressively, the Bruins scored 38 runs in those three games while allowing just 14.
Meanwhile, the UTSA Roadrunners swept through the Austin Regional with a 10-2 win over Kansas State and a pair of wins over the #2 seed Texas Longhorns.
As a result, UCLA will host the Roadrunners this weekend at Jackie Robinson Stadium in the NCAA Super Regionals. The Bruins will be looking to advance to the College World Series for the first time since they won the 2013 national championship.
Last Time Out
After UC Irvine defeated Arizona State 11-6 last Sunday, the Anteaters had to play a s game against the Bruins later that day.
The outcome of the game was almost never in question.
Despite being the host team, UCLA was the visiting team and the Bruins began the game with a pair of singles by Dean West and Roch Cholowsky. After Mulivai Levu ground into a double play which advanced West to third but wiped out Cholowsky, Roman Martin continued his weekend tear with a single that scored West to give the Bruins a 1-0 lead.
Payton Brennan led off the second for the Bruins with a double and Blake Balsz moved him over with a sacrifice bunt. Cashel Dugger scored Brennan on a single through the left side. Third baseman Phoenix Call moved Dugger over to third with a hit to right field. UCLA loaded the bases when West walked on five pitches. The Bruins made it 3-0 when Cholowsky hit a sacrifice fly to right which scored Dugger.
UCLA put a fork into the Anteaters in the top of the fourth. Dugger and Call got the inning going with a pair of walks. West laid down a perfect bunt that he was able to beat out for a hit when UCI pitcher Danny Suarez fell fielding the ball. West’s hit loaded the bases. Cholowsky hit his second sacrifice fly of the game, this time to left, to score Dugger again. That brought Levu to the dish and he took a 1-1 pitch and sent it over the fence in left-center for a three-run homer, giving the Bruins a 7-0 lead and proved to be the game-winning hit for UCLA.
It also sent Suarez to the showers as UCI brought in David Butler to pitch to Martin, but he wasn’t much better and walked him. A P.J. Salgado single let Martin to go from first to third while a sacrifice fly by Brennan scored him, giving UCLA an 8-0 edge.
UC Irvine chipped away at the Bruin lead over their next three at-bats. They finally got to starter Wylan Moss in the bottom of the fourth. With the bases loaded, one run already in and just one out in the bottom of the fourth, John Savage turned to Chris Grothues. He got the second out with a grounder to first which scored the Anteaters’ second run, and ended the threat with a strikeout of Blake Penso.
Grothues came back out to the mound to start the fifth, but when he loaded the bases with just one out, Savage turned to Cal Randall. That left Grothues responsible for the runners when he left. After Randall gave up a two-run double to Anthony Martinez, he got the next two guys out to stop the bleeding and UCLA now led, 8-4.
The top of the sixth saw Randall give up a leadoff homer to Alonso Reyes followed by a pair of outs, but after he hit Will Bermudez with a pitch, Savage went to the pen again. This time, he brought in Jack O’Connor, who picked up the third out on a fielder’s choice. After six, UCLA led 8-5, and that’s how this one would end as the Bruins kept the Anteaters off the scoreboard after the homer by Reyes.
UTSA Roadrunners
The Roadrunners took out the #2 seed in the tournament by beating Texas in back-to-back games last weekend. On Saturday, UTSA defeated the Longhorns, 9-7, to send Texas to an elimination game against Kansas State. In that game, the Longhorns defeated the Wildcats, 15-8, to set up a rematch against the underdog Roadrunners.
The nitecap played out like the Bruins’ game as the Roadrunners scored a pair of runs in the first and five more in the third to take a 7-0 lead. The Longhorns tried to come back with breadsticks in the fourth and the eighth, but they fell short by only scoring a pair of runs in the ninth, losing 7-4.
Analysis
Overall, this weekend’s series should prove to be a good one. While you can’t predict baseball, the Bruins should come out ahead as long as they continue to hit the way they did last weekend.
The fact that the Roadrunners’ probable starter today has given up about a full run more per nine innings should bode well for UCLA in today’s series opener.
That said, perhaps the best news of all about this weekend series is that the play-by-play will be handled by former Angels broadcaster Victor Rojas instead of the insufferable Dani Wexelman who had the assignment last weekend. Let’s just hope we get to hear Victor call more than one Bruin “big fly” in each game.
Here’s how to watch this afternoon’s game:
2025 NCAA Baseball Super Regionals
Teams: #15 seed UCLA Bruins (45-16) vs. UTSA Roadrunners (47-13)
Where: Jackie Robinson Stadium, Los Angeles, CA
When: 4:00 pm PT, Saturday, June 7, 2025
TV: ESPNU with Victor Rojas and Todd Walker
Live Stream: WatchESPN.com and the ESPN app
Live Audio: uclabruins.com with Nick Koop and Sid Iyer
Live Stats: UCLA StatBroadcast
NCAA Game Center
Game 1 Probable Pitchers:
UCLA - Michael Barnett, RHP, Jr. (11-1, 4.18 ERA)
UTSA - Zach Royse, RHP, Jr. (9-4, 5.16 ERA)
This is your Los Angeles Super Regional Game One game thread.
Go Bruins!!
Thanks again for supporting The Mighty Bruin. Your paid subscriptions make this site possible. Questions, comments, story ideas, angry missives and more can be sent to to @TheMightyBruin on Twitter.
Boom! Triple!
So many missed opportunities…