{"id":835948,"date":"2026-06-01T03:21:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T03:21:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/835948\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T03:21:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T03:21:16","slug":"no-1-national-seed-ucla-baseball-eliminated-by-saint-marys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/835948\/","title":{"rendered":"No. 1 national seed UCLA baseball eliminated by Saint Mary’s"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Saint Mary\u2019s has achieved the seemingly unthinkable \u2014 the Gaels have eliminated UCLA<\/a>, the nation\u2019s top-ranked team, from the NCAA tournament<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With two outs in the 10th inning, Makoa Sniffen<\/a> drove in Cody Kashimoto<\/a> on a walk-off single off UCLA reliever Easton Hawk<\/a> to lift Saint Mary\u2019s to a 6-5 comeback win<\/a> Sunday in a Los Angeles Regional elimination game at Jackie Robinson Stadium.<\/p>\n

The Gaels (36-26), who also stunned the Bruins (52-8) in the regional opener on Friday<\/a>, made the Big Ten champions just the second NCAA No. 1 overall seed \u2014 after Vanderbilt in 2025 \u2014 to be eliminated from the regional round since the current format was established in 1999.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, this weekend, we just did not play up to our standards,\u201d UCLA coach John Savage<\/a> said. \u201cI really felt it was a struggle, for whatever reason \u2014 all three games, really. But it\u2019s nothing to take away from this team. You win 52 games [and are] preseason [No.1], and you never leave that spot; it\u2019s really remarkable and a lot of credit to our captains, to our seniors, to the entire program \u2026 I just can\u2019t say enough about the people that I\u2019m around and that I\u2019ve coached.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Against all odds, Saint Mary\u2019s is still alive and playing Cal Poly in the regional final on Sunday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cFelt like 12 rounds with the heavyweight champ,\u201d Saint Mary\u2019s coach Eric Valenzuela said of the Gaels\u2019 wins over UCLA. \u201cSo proud of our group, the fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Favored to win their first national title since 2013, the Bruins led the Gaels 5-4 entering the ninth and needed just three outs to continue what had been the program\u2019s best season ever.<\/p>\n

But Tanner Griffith led with a base hit off UCLA reliever Cal Randall and \u2014 after being moved to second following a sacrifice bunt from Diego Castellanos \u2014 catcher Ian Armstrong brought Griffith home with an RBI single to right field off Hawk.<\/p>\n

Saint Mary\u2019s reliever David Roberts retired the Bruins in order in the 10th. Hawk then struck out Brayden Gutierrez before Kashimoto hit an infield single. Griffith advanced Kashimoto to second on a groundout to first. Two batters later, Sniffen\u2019s hit to left field gave Kashimoto just enough time to beat a throw to the plate, sealing the Gaels\u2019 win.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Randall and Hawk pitched in all three of UCLA\u2019s regional games. Savage saluted the entire pitching staff \u2014 highlighting Angel Cervantes\u2019 development as a freshman \u2014 but added that Logan Reddemann\u2019s absence had a \u201cmajor effect\u201d on the staff. The ace right-hander hadn\u2019t pitched since April 17 because of arm soreness.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt had a ripple effect on the starters, had a ripple effect on the bullpen,\u201d Savage said of Reddemann\u2019s absence. \u201cThe effect it had on roles, the effect it had on usage [was a] major deal. No excuses, because [we] still won. But at the same time, it looked a little different and it felt a little different, and at the end, I think it really hurt losing a potential first-rounder the last six weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Big Ten coach of the year took the time to acknowledge the Bruins\u2019 junior class for sticking with the program throughout its ascent, admiring the \u201call kinds of players\u201d he expects to be selected in July\u2019s MLB draft.<\/p>\n

Savage, though, was particularly emotional when discussing the eventual departure of shortstop and back-to-back Big Ten player of the year Roch Cholowsky<\/a>, who is widely expected to be a first-round pick.<\/p>\n

\u201cCholowsky just meant so much to the program,\u201d Savage said. \u201cHe just had such an impact on the program. He had such an impact on people. Had impact on a fan base. Had impact on the community. Just such a winning, winning player. It\u2019s hard to watch a guy like that leave \u2026 but it\u2019s what he\u2019s all about. He\u2019s all about the right things.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a Bruin through and through. And at the end of the day, you couldn\u2019t ask for a better player or a better person than Roch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Led by Cholowsky and eight other All-Big Ten selections, with the best team ERA (3.27) throughout the regular season, the Bruins had lost merely six times before the regional and had won every series.<\/p>\n

But after losing two games to Saint Mary\u2019s, as regional hosts for a second consecutive year, UCLA has no choice but to go back to the drawing board in preparation for 2027.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel for them,\u201d Savage said of his clubhouse. \u201cIt\u2019s the college game \u2026 anything can happen. We didn\u2019t play well enough this weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Saint Mary\u2019s has achieved the seemingly unthinkable \u2014 the Gaels have eliminated UCLA, the nation\u2019s top-ranked team, from…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":835949,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[342670,32072,1582,276,342671,342668,6803,113574,2961,224,5337,342667,342666,342665,11009,19686,113573,342669,152301,2501],"class_list":["post-835948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-10th-inning","tag-bruins","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-cody-kashimoto","tag-diego-castellanos","tag-first-time","tag-gaels","tag-la","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-makoa-sniffen","tag-national-seed-ucla-baseball","tag-national-title-hope","tag-ncaa-tournament","tag-out","tag-saint-mary","tag-second-ncaa-no","tag-sunday-night","tag-ucla"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=835948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/835949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=835948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=835948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=835948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}