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Saint Mary's upsets No. 1 UCLA twice in three days to eliminate Bruins in stunning fashion

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Saint Mary's upsets No. 1 UCLA twice in three days to eliminate Bruins in stunning fashion originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

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Entering the college baseball postseason, no team had higher expectations than the UCLA Bruins.

Armed with Roch Cholowsky, the favorite to go No. 1 in the MLB Draft in July, UCLA earned the top overall seed in the postseason. The Bruins went 51-6 in the regular season and 28-2 in the Big Ten conference, allowing them to host at least one regional and making them the team to beat on the road to the College World Series.

Instead, though, UCLA ran into the Saint Mary's Gaels, who eliminated the Bruins entirely over the course of three days. As a result, UCLA's season ends in disappointing fashion as the Bruins will now wonder what could've been.

Here's how Saint Mary's singlehandedly sent the Bruins home.

MORE: Updated super regionals tracker

How Saint Mary's eliminated UCLA

As the top seed in their regional, UCLA's first postseason game on Friday came against the No. 4 seed in the Los Angeles regional: Saint Mary's. While many expected a route, the Gaels kept it close, as UCLA scored just two runs in nine innings.

Saint Mary's had the same score through eight, but that changed in the top of the ninth. With top Bruins pitcher Easton Hawk on the mound, Gaels DH Jacob Johnson went deep to take a slim 3-2 lead. In the bottom of the inning, with a man on first, Cam Staton got Roch Cholowsky to fly out to end the game, making UCLA the first No. 1 overall seed to ever lose its regional opening game.

However, the regionals are double elimination, so UCLA remained alive, albeit with no margin for error. The Bruins beat Virginia Tech on Saturday to stay alive, and with Saint Mary's falling to Cal Poly, it set up a rematch on Sunday afternoon in Los Angeles.

This time around, UCLA took a 5-2 lead through the top of the fifth inning, but the Gaels continued to fight. Saint Mary's scored one run each in the fifth and sixth innings, but still remained a run short of tying the game in the ninth.

After UCLA stranded the bases loaded in the top of the ninth, Saint Mary's had three outs to tie the game. The Gaels got a leadoff single, and after UCLA got two outs while the runner advanced to second, Ian Armstrong hit aa chopper that found space, allowing Saint Mary's to tie the game at five.

In extra innings, Saint Mary's held the Bruins scoreless in the top of the 10th, giving the Gaels a chance to win it in the bottom of the inning. Cody Kashimoto reached on an infield single with one out, then after he advanced to second on a fielders choice, Makoa Sniffen brought him home with a walk-off single.

Hawk was once again responsible for the game-losing run on UCLA's end, making it twice in three days that Saint Mary's got to him.

The result means that the Bruins become the second-straight No. 1 overall seed to fail to make it to the super regionals. Saint Mary's, meanwhile, has to beat Cal Poly twice to win the Los Angeles regional.

Top seeds to lose in the regionals

  • Vanderbilt (2007)
  • Oregon State (2014)
  • UCLA (2015)
  • Vanderbilt (2025)
  • UCLA (2026)

UCLA becomes the fifth ever No. 1 overall seed to lose in the regionals, and the second Bruins team to do so as well. Previously, UCLA lost as the No. 1 overall seed in the 2015 regionals, while Vanderbilt and Oregon State make up the other three instances.

However, unlike the first three times this happened, UCLA in 2026 and Vanderbilt in 2025 each failed to make it even to the regional final.

After making the College World Series last year, the Bruins failed to return to Omaha this time around.

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