UCLA becomes first No. 1 national seed to lose Game 1 of Regional in stunning upset
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UCLA’s visions of a trip to Omaha and June glory took a major hit in late May, when the Bruins became the first No. 1 national seed to lose the first game of its home regional.
Fellow California school Saint Mary’s did the historical honors on Friday in the Los Angeles Regional opener, stunning UCLA, 3-2, to immediately put the powerhouse Bruins behind the 8-ball before they even think about playing in next week’s super regionals. UCLA will now be fighting for survival in an elimination game on Saturday at 4 p.m. ET, with the Bruins facing the loser of Friday’s other Los Angeles Regional game between Virginia Tech and Cal Poly.
While UCLA (51-7) tries to quickly put the loss behind it and stay afloat, Saint Mary’s (35-25) will bask in the glow of now being the answer to a really positive trivia question. Not only are the Gaels the first team to beat a No. 1 overall seed in its regional opener in NCAA Tournament history, they’re now the second program to win a regional opener against a top-16 seed in back-to-back seasons.
The Bruins had one last chance to prevent making the wrong kind of history on Friday when Roch Cholowsky stepped to the plate in the bottom of the ninth with a man on first and 2 outs. Down to his last strike, the junior infielder sent a very playable fly ball to center field that Tanner Griffith settled under and caught to send Saint Mary’s into celebration.
Griffith contributed at the plate, too, scoring 1 of the Gaels’ 3 runs. He came around on an RBI double by Makoa Sniffen in the sixth inning that tied the game at 2-2.
That set the stage for the offensive hero of the day for Saint Mary’s, designated hitter Jacob Johnson, who belted his second solo homer of the game in the top of the ninth to give the Gaels a 3-2 lead. The dramatic blast to right field was his second homer to right of the day, with Johnson also connecting on a solo shot to right in the fourth that gave Saint Mary’s a 1-0 lead.
UCLA quickly took the lead back with single runs in the fourth and fifth. Cholowsky’s sacrifice fly gave the Bruins a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the fifth, but Sniffen answered in the sixth to show that Saint Mary’s wasn’t going anywhere on this day, before Johnson showed off his power again in the ninth.
Left-hander Cam Staton kept UCLA right where it was in the final 2 innings, allowing 1 hit and 1 walk while striking out 3 to nail down one of the biggest upsets in NCAA baseball tournament history. While Saint Mary’s next faces the winner of that Virginia Tech-Cal Poly game, it’ll leave UCLA to quickly pick up the pieces on Saturday to try to avoid a very early elimination.
UCLA is suddenly teetering in its quest to get to Omaha next month. Here is what the Kalshi market is currently reflecting after Friday’s shocker and what teams now have the best shot to be playing in the College World Series in June:
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
