UCLA
48-17
LSU
50-15
UCLA Drops 9-5 Decision to LSU in Omaha
June 17, 2025 | Baseball
OMAHA, Neb. โ The No. 15-seeded UCLA baseball team suffered its first loss of the postseason on Tuesday morning, absorbing a 9-5 loss to No. 6-seeded LSU in the winner's bracket of the Men's College World Series at Charles Schwab Field Omaha.
The contest took two days to complete. The teams completed the first three innings, with LSU taking a 5-3 lead, on Monday night before the game was suspended due to weather. The tilt resumed on Tuesday morning at 8 a.m. PT / 10 a.m. CT in the top of the fourth inning.
The Bruins (48-17) are now slated to face No. 3 seed Arkansas (49-14) later today at 4 p.m. PT / 6 p.m. CT, with the winner advancing to the bracket final and the loser heading home.
UCLA jumped out to a 3-0 lead over LSU (50-15) in the top of the first inning, but the Tigers answered back with a go-ahead four-spot in the bottom half of the inning, and then would go on to out-score the Bruins 5-2 over the remaining eight innings.
Sophomore third baseman Roman Martin was the main bat behind the first-inning Bruin rally, bashing a double into the left field corner to score Roch Cholowsky and open the scoring. UCLA added two more runs on an infield single from right fielder AJ Salgado and an RBI groundout from center fielder Payton Brennan.
Postseason Roman Martin reporting for duty ??#GoBruins // ESPN pic.twitter.com/18yGL1iwER
— UCLA Baseball (@UCLABaseball) June 16, 2025
The Bruins showed signs of life in the eighth inning, plating a pair to get within three at 8-5 and later loading the bases to get the go-ahead run to the plate.
Sophomore first baseman Mulivai Levu sparked that rally with a solid single to right with one away. That started a streak that saw five of six Bruins reach base, with runs coming in on an RBI fielder's choice from Brennan and a chop single past the second base bag from DH Blake Balsz.
Following that infield single, sophomore catcher Cashel Dugger worked a walk to re-load the bases for UCLA. LSU responded by bringing in hard-throwing righty Chase Shores to get the final out, and he did so by inducing an inning-ending groundout on his very first pitch.
Shores followed with a 1-2-3 ninth to finish off the game.
UCLA used a total of eight pitchers over the course of the game. Starter Landon Stump took the loss after allowing five earned over two innings.
Southpaw Chris Grothues (1 IP, 1 H, 0 R) and right-hander Cal Randall (1.2 IP, 1 H, 3 K, 0 R) had strong outings out of the bullpen for UCLA.
LSU was led by first baseman Jared Jones, who went 2-4 with four RBIs. He hit a three-run homer in the first to put the Tigers up for good, and later capped the scoring with a ninth-inning RBI single into center field.
Cleanup hitter Jake Brown (3-5, two RBIs) and DH Ethan Frey (1-2, four runs) also had strong offensive performances for LSU.
Righty Casan Evans notched the win for the Tigers, "starting" the game in the fourth on Tuesday and going 4 1/3 innings while surrendering just two runs against.
With the result, UCLA moved to 75-53 all-time in NCAA Tournament games, and 10-10 at the Men's College World Series. Tuesday night's contest marks the first ever postseason matchup between UCLA and Arkansas.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Casan Evans (5-1)
L: Stump, Landon (6-2)
S: Chase Shores (1)
Batting:
2B: Martin, Roman 1
RBI: Martin, Roman 1 ; Salgado, AJ 1 ; Brennan, Payton 2 ; Balsz, Blake 1
SH: West, Dean 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Cholowsky, Roch 1 ; Levu, Mulivai 2 ; Martin, Roman 2
HBP: Martin, Roman 1 ; Call, Phoenix 1
Batting:
HR: Jared Jones 1
RBI: Steven Milam 1 ; Jake Brown 2 ; Jared Jones 4 ; Luis Hernandez 1 ; Daniel Dickinson 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Derek Curiel 1 ; Ethan Frey 4 ; Steven Milam 1 ; Jake Brown 1 ; Jared Jones 2
HBP: Derek Curiel 1 ; Luis Hernandez 1
