UCLA Bruins Open College World Series Against Murray State
The Bruins have dominated the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament and, now, are looking to bring home their first national championship since 2013.
The UCLA Bruins will play their first game of the 2025 College World Series in Omaha at 11 am PT against the Murray State Racers. Today’s game will be broadcast on ESPN and it will also be streamed on WatchESPN.com as well as the ESPN mobile app.
The Bruins come into the CWS playing great baseball. UCLA used their bats to sweep the Los Angeles Regional, beating Fresno State, Arizona State and UC Irvine. Then, last weekend, they also swept the Los Angeles Super Regional too by beating the UTSA Roadrunners twice to advance to the College World Series. In that series, the Bruins relied on their bullpen to keep the Roadrunners off the scoreboard.
Meanwhile, the Murray State Racers defeated #10 seed Ole Miss, followed by Georgia Tech. The Racers were pounded by Ole Miss in the first game of the regional finals, 19-8, but they managed to win the second game of the regional finals, 12-11, to eliminate the Rebels.
In the Durham Super Regional, Murray State dropped the opener to Duke, 7-4, before coming back to win the final two games of the series by scores of 19-9 and 5-4 to punch their ticket to Omaha.
While the Bruins did publish game notes in advance of the CWS, the Racers did not publish detailed notes. As a result of this, it is difficult, if not impossible, to determine who may take the hill for either team.
In the last two series, Bruin head coach John Savage has given the ball to Michael Barnett first and followed with Landon Stump the next day. In the LA Regional, he turned to Wylan Moss to start the third game.
But the CWS is a little different format from the regionals and super regionals. In the Los Angeles Regional, the Bruins played three games in three days. While there could have been a fourth game in four days that could have stretched the pitching staff thin, the Bruin bats prevented that from happening.
Last weekend in the Supers, it was Barnett and Stump making up the 1-2 punch for UCLA.
The closest thing you have to the CWS schedule would have been the Big Ten Conference Tournament, which saw Savage start off the week with May and CJ Bott, then, using Barnett and Stump later in the week. It’s enough to make you say, “Hmmmm….” if you’re trying to figure who will take the hill for the Bruins this morning.
Personally, my guess, and that’s all it would be, is that Savage will choose to hold back Barnett and Stump for a little later in the week. I think Barnett will get the call on Monday with Stump starting on either Tuesday or Wednesday. If he does go that route, I’m expecting to see May on the hill today as a reward for his strong performance against Arizona State in the LA Regional where he picked up the win by only allowing three runs with two earned runs on three hits.
But you can’t predict baseball, and John Savage may go a completely different direction to start the College World Series today.
Meanwhile, the Racers didn’t even publish a full set of game/series notes for the CWS. All they provided was an article which was a preview of today’s game that didn’t mention any pitchers at all. To be fair, it doesn’t look like Murray State published game notes regularly this year, making it difficult to predict who the Racers will start against the Bruins.
Personally, I expect Murray State head coach Dan Skirka to go with either Isaac Silva or Nic Schutte based on the number of games each has started this season.
Here is the full CWS schedule:
Friday, June 13
Game 1: #13 Coastal Carolina defeats Arizona, 7-4
Game 2: #8 Oregon State defeats Louisville, 4-3
Saturday, June 14
Game 3: #15 UCLA vs. Murray State at 11:00 am PT on ESPN
Game 4: #3 Arkansas vs. #6 LSU at 4:00 pm PT on ESPN
Sunday, June 15
Game 5: Arizona vs. TBD at 11:00 am PT on ESPN
Game 6: #13 Coastal Carolina vs. #8 Oregon State at 4:00 pm PT on ESPN2
Monday, June 16
Game 7: Game 3 Loser vs. Game 4 Loser at 11:00 am PT on ESPN
Game 8: Game 3 Winner vs. Game 4 Winner at 4:00 pm PT on ESPN
Tuesday, June 17
Game 9: Game 5 Winner vs. Game 6 Loser at 11:00 am PT on ESPN
Game 10: Game 8 Winner vs. Game 8 Loser at 4:00 pm PT on ESPN
Wednesday, June 18
Game 11: Game 6 Winner vs. Game 9 Winner at 11:00 am PT on ESPN
Game 12: Game 8 Winner vs. Game 10 Winner, 4:00 pm PT on ESPN
Wednesday, June 18
Game 13 (if necessary): Game 11 teams at TBD
Game 14 (if necessary): Game 12 teams at TBD
Championship Finals
Game 1: 4:00 pm PT, Saturday, June 21 on ESPN
Game 2: 11:30 pm PT, Sunday, June 22 on ABC
Game 3 (if necessary): 4:30 pm PT, Monday, June 23 on ESPN
This is your UCLA Bruins vs. Murray State Racers CWS Game #3 game thread.
College World Series
Game #3
Teams: #15 seed UCLA Bruins (47-16) vs. Murray State (44-15)
When: 11:00 am PT, Saturday, June 14, 2025
Where: Charles Schwab Field Omaha, Omaha, Nebraska
TV: ESPN with Karl Ravech,Eduardo Perez, Ben McDonald, and Dani Wexelman
Live Stream: WatchESPN.com and the ESPN app
Live Stats: UCLA StatBroadcast
NCAA Gamecenter
Game #3 Probable Pitchers:
UCLA - TBD
Murray State - TBD
CWS Notes:
UCLA
Murray State
NCAA CWS Bracket
Go Bruins!!! Bring home NC #125!!!
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Bruins put up a crooked number!!!
“The key to winning baseball games is pitching, fundamentals, and three run homers.”—Earl Weaver
Keep it going Bruins!