By R.G. Richard
June 08, 2025
LOS ANGELES – The No. 13-ranked UCLA baseball team punched its ticket to the College World Series in Omaha, Neb. after blanking UTSA, 7-0, in Sunday afternoon’s Los Angeles Super Regional at Jackie Robinson Stadium. The Bruins, who are returning to Omaha for the first time since 2013, will be making their sixth appearance all-time at the CWS and fourth under head coach John Savage.
With the shutout, the Bruins (47-16) completed a two-game sweep of UTSA (47-15). The Bruins outscored the Roadrunners 9-2 for the weekend, and UCLA pitchers combined to throw 16 consecutive scoreless innings to close out the series.
UCLA went ahead for good after plating single runs in the fourth and fifth innings on RBI singles from Toussaint Bythewood and Roch Cholowsky, respectively. UCLA then put the game out of reach with five runs over the final two frames.
Sophomore right-hander Landon Stump led a combined shutout for the Bruins, scattering four hits over four-plus scoreless frames. The Bruin bullpen suffocated the UTSA offense over the remainder of the game, tossing five hitless innings.
UCLA’s ‘pen was a clear standout on the weekend. Over two contests, Bruin relievers teamed up to throw eight shutout, hit-free innings. Just two Roadrunners batters reached base against a UCLA reliever all weekend, one on a hit-by-pitch and another on a two-out walk in the bottom of the ninth on Sunday.
The Bruins were balanced offensively in the clinching effort, with eight of nine starters collecting at least one hit, and all nine reaching base. Center fielder Payton Brennan (3-4) paced the Bruins with three hits while also driving in a pair and scoring twice himself. Cholowsky and third baseman Roman Martin continued their red-hot postseasons with two hit-days.
UCLA opened the scoring with a two-out rally in the top of the fourth. Brennan sparked that rally with an opposite-field double to left, and then he came around to score moments later when Bythewood – serving as the DH on Sunday – went the other way on a 2-2 offering a saw his soft liner get over the head of the UTSA second baseman to plate Brennan from second base.
The Bruins doubled the lead an inning later using small ball, as second baseman Phoenix Call reached on a bunt single to lead off the frame before moving into scoring position on a Dean West sacrifice. That gambit paid off as the next batter, Cholowsky, lined the first pitch he saw into right-center field for an RBI base hit.
UCLA later added insurance with a two-spot in the second and a three-spot in the ninth.
Right fielder AJ Salgado laid the foundation for the former rally, smoking a liner off the glove of the UTSA third baseman for a leadoff double. He came around when Brennan hit a comebacker off the UTSA pitcher and the Roadrunners made a late and wide throw to first base trying to record an out. Call later made it a crooked number with a sac fly to center.
Brennan provided the coupe de grace with a bases-loaded single to left in the ninth that scored a pair, and Bythewood later capped the game’s scoring with an RBI groundout.
UTSA applied most of its offensive pressure in the early innings, getting the leadoff man aboard in four of the first five frames. However, UCLA bounced back to put up a zero each time.
The Roadrunners’ best opportunity to get on the board turned out to be in the first inning, as leadoff man Norris McClure was able to start off that frame with a double. However, he would get no further than second as Stump bounced back with a swinging strikeout, a harmless flyout to shallow center, and an inning-ending grounder to Martin at third.
UTSA later stranded runners on the corners in the fourth after Stump got Jordan Ballin to chase an elevated fastball for an inning-ending strikeout. They would not get a runner into scoring position the rest of the game.
The UCLA bullpen was really only tested in the fifth, as southpaw Chris Grothues was summoned after a leadoff walk in that inning. He responded by getting McClure to bounce into an easy 6-3 double play, and then two-hole hitter Mason Lytle to look at inside fastball for a called strike three on an inning-ending backwards-K.
Grothues ultimately went 2 2/3 innings, the longest of any Bruin reliever, en route to the win.
Cal Randall got the final out of the seventh, and then August Souza and Easton Hawk followed with scoreless frames to lock down the win.
Left-hander Conor Myles absorbed the loss for UTSA, allowing two earned over 4 2/3 innings. McClure’s first-inning double marked the lone extra-base hit for the Roadrunners in the contest.
Sunday’s result marked the Bruins’ first postseason shutout since the deciding game of the College World Series in 2013, when the Bruins blanked Mississippi State by a margin of 8-0. It was the Bruins second-ever shutout in a Super Regional game, following a 3-0 win over Cal State Fullerton on Jun. 8, 2013 to reach that year’s CWS.
In addition, the 7-0 win matched the Bruins’ largest-ever margin of victory in a Super Regional contest (8-1 vs. Cal State Fullerton; Jun. 13, 2010).
UCLA’s previous College World Series berths occurred in 1969, 1997, 2010, 2012, and 2013.
COURTESY UCLA ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS
