UCLA’s College World Series title hopes shattered in season-ending loss to Arkansas
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OMAHA — For 12 years UCLA waited to return to Omaha and the College World Series. It waited 15 total hours to play the fourth inning of its game with Louisiana State. Now, the Bruins will have to wait several months to play again.
UCLA fell behind in the first inning for the second time on Tuesday and couldn’t complete an improbable comeback. The Bruins’ season ended at Charles Schwab Field in a 7-3 loss to Arkansas.
“I’m just so proud of our guys,” UCLA coach John Savage said. “Disappointing day for sure. Tough day. Tough circumstances. But at the end of the day, you know, you’ve got to give credit to LSU and, certainly, Arkansas.”
UCLA played from behind most of the game after returning starter Cody Delvecchio gave up a two-run homer in the first inning. He responded, yielding just one more run across four innings in his first appearance since March 28.
But his day couldn’t quite match Arkansas starter Zach Root or reliever Aiden Jimenez. The Bruins’ offense went down in order in three straight innings leading up to the fifth, when Dean West stepped to the plate with two outs and runners on second and third. He fell behind early, then worked the count even before a weak grounder to second.
UCLA didn’t have a baserunner again until the eighth when Cashel Dugger drew a lead-off walk. West then singled, giving the Bruins a chance with Roch Cholowsky at the plate. The Big Ten player of the year chopped the first pitch to short for a 6-3 inning-ending double play.
Arkansas added two runs in the bottom of the eighth to make it 7-0 before the Bruins tried to rally. Mulivai Levu started the inning with a triple down the right-field line and scored on an error. AJ Salgado scored on the next play, a throwing error after a Payton Brennan single. Brennan eventually scored on a wild pitch.
UCLA (48-18) clawed back three runs before the door closed on its season. They went six for 32 against Arkansas (50-14) and nine for 34 in a 9-5 loss to Louisiana State earlier in the day.
“Going out the way we did, nobody was happy in terms of how that ended,” Savage said. “But at the same time, just in terms of what they accomplished as a group, I think they just felt like almost staying out on the field.”
Savage went deep into his bullpen. Seven Bruins threw against Arkansas and UCLA used 12 different pitchers in the College World Series — a symptom of not getting enough quality innings for starters.
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“I think our starting pitching has to get better,” Savage said. “Clearly we’ve had really good starting pitching, but we have to make sure that we have a couple frontline ones and twos that will carry the freight over the weekend.”
Arkansas will play LSU (50-15) on Wednesday at 4 p.m. PDT (ESPN) with a spot in the College World Series championship game at stake. Louisville will face Coastal Carolina at 11 a.m. (ESPN).
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