UCLA Runs Out of Gas, Ends Season with 6-5 Loss to St. Mary's in Extra Innings

Live by the walk-off. Die by the walk-off.

Dean West hit a fifth inning homer helped the Bruins but it wasn’t enough. (Photo Credit: Joe Piechowski)

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There was a moment early in the game where it felt like UCLA was about to run away with things.

In the fifth inning, holding a 3-2 lead, Dean West hit a home run over the right field fence to give UCLA a little insurance. The middle of the order - Roch Cholowsky, Mulivai Levu, and Roman Martin - got on base in rapid succession, and Will Gasparino was hit by the first pitch he saw to drive in a second run to give the Bruins a 5-2 lead with the bases still loaded and only one out. For all intents and purposes, UCLA was on the doorstep of blowing the doors open and setting themselves up for a second game.

Unfortunately, that isn’t what happened.

Cashel Duggar and Aiden Aguayo both struck out to leave the bases loaded, and the Bruins would proceed to let Saint Mary’s back into the game little by little until a two-out hit from Ian Armstrong in the 9th inning got over the outstretched glove of Levu at first to tie the game, and at that point it felt academic that UCLA was destined to lose the game. The Bruins went down in order in the top of the 10th inning, then watched closer Easton Hawk give up his third run of the regional, putting two runners on base before giving up a single through the left side of the infield to Makoa Sniffen, letting the Gaels pull off their second upset in three days and eliminating the Bruins from the postseason by a final score of 6-5.

This sort of result has felt inevitable for the last few weeks. UCLA had an excellent season by any metrics, but the team has struggled ever since the Rutgers series back in April, losing a handful of games down the stretch and not looking like the world-beaters they had seemed like back in February and March. Three comeback victories to win the Big Ten Tournament may have buoyed belief that this team was never going to be out of the game, but it has been evident that guys were tired and struggling these last few weeks, and coach John Savage’s decisions to keep playing the same group of players down the stretch instead of giving guys rest seemingly came back to bite him. In particular, Roch Cholowsky looked like a guy who is going to fall down some MLB draft boards, going a combined 2-12 over the course of the regional and only driving in a single run across 28 innings of baseball. Cholowsky had a poor College World Series outing last year, and when you combine it with this performance, he’ll be looking to answer plenty of questions about his ability to perform when the lights get brightest. The rest of the team was not much better in key moments, and looked for all the world like a team that was struggling to handle the pressure of the moment.

Obviously, injuries late in the season have hurt this team. The loss of Logan Redderman robbed the team of a potential first-round pitcher down the stretch, though I would note that UCLA’s starting pitching generally held up in the regional, with Angel Cervantes having a heroic effort today in going 5.1 innings, with a 4th run only getting tagged on thanks to a poor effort out of the bullpen from Chris Grothues. The loss of Peyton Brennan in the first game clearly had a bigger effect, as it caused a scramble throughout the lineup that led to some seldom-playing bench pieces thrust into a larger role. The insertion of Aiden Aguayo at second base, a spot he was going to play on Friday before injuring his ankle pregame, and shifting Phoenix Call to right field did not seem to pay off; Call was able to hold his own in the outfield, including making one spectacular catch in the 8th inning to preserve the Bruin lead, but Aguayo had a miserable day, going 1-5 at the plate and making more than his fair share of fielding mistakes. One wonders if sticking with senior Jarrod Hocking in right field, where he had plenty of starting experience and went 2-3 in the win over Virginia Tech, might have been the more correct call. But it also might have helped to get those players more playing time throughout the season and rest the starters more often as well, especially once the team had wrapped up the Big Ten regular season championship and were seemingly clear as the #1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament. Baseball is a grind, and even in college where you aren’t playing every single day, guys need rest.

That said, it’s also hard for me to blame any one thing. Coach John Savage continued making some questionable calls, including his choice not to start Easton Hawk in the 9th inning and instead going to him once Cal Randall had given up a leadoff single, but I also understand the decisions he made; as Savage stated in the postgame press conference, he was hoping Randall could handle the 9th inning and save Hawk for the night game. It’s also hard for me to blame the players too much, as it is hard enough to win 53 games in a season and go 28-2 in conference, no matter how good or seemingly subpar that conference is. If the Bruins had gotten just one more clutch hit like they got last night against Virginia Tech, I wouldn’t be writing this postgame.

But the sad truth is that despite all of their regular season accolades, none of it matters now. The UCLA Bruins entered the NCAA Tournament as the #1 overall seed, and were eliminated after a 1-2 performance. That regular season performance is going to be reevaluated after a regional performance where the team constantly failed to rise to the occasion, and Savage’s coaching performance in the regular season is going to be ignored in favor of a regional where every button he pressed failed to pass muster.

Baseball is a game of failure. We celebrate guys who can hit above .300 over the course of their career, but that just means that they managed to not get out in three out of every 10 at-bats. The UCLA Bruins did a great job this season in managing their failures to maximize their successes.

Unfortunately, they came up short in the end.

Go Bruins.

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