UCLA Baseball Surges to World Series Regional Final

UCLA baseball put together yet another dominant performance over Arizona State to move on to the College World Series Los Angeles Regional Final.
UCLA players celebrates as they break out the bats in the 7th inning to defeat the Oregon Ducks at PK Park in Eugene April 19, 2025
UCLA players celebrates as they break out the bats in the 7th inning to defeat the Oregon Ducks at PK Park in Eugene April 19, 2025 | Chris Pietsch/The Register-Guard / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

In this story:


UCLA Baseball continues to plow its way through the Los Angeles Regional in the NCAA Men's College World Series after a dominant 11-5 win over the Arizona State Sun Devils which followed a 19-4 win over the now-eliminated Fresno State Bulldogs on Friday.

The Bruins are yet to lose in this double elimination regional tournament that will grant the winner a berth into the Super Regionals of the MCWS.

The 15th-seeded Bruins assumed control early in the game with a seven-run second inning that included a Roman Martin grand slam. UCLA put up two more runs the following inning and then their last two in the fifth and eighth innings.

"They've been very consistent," coach John Savage told UCLA Athletics after the win. "We haven't had a lot of games where we've been shut down; that's why the Nebraska game was the game that stood out. Again, we've had a lot of good at-bats against a good pitcher. We continued that tonight."

Junior pitcher Ian May pitched five innings and took home his seventh win of the season, allowing just two runs and striking out three batters.

How Does the Men's College World Series Work?

The NCAA Men's College World Series features 64 teams split up into 16 different regions.

UCLA is part of the Los Angeles Division alongside Arizona State, Fresno State and UC Irvine.

Each regional group of four teams competes in a double-elimination tournament, meaning two losses fully eliminates you from the World Series. For instance, Fresno State lost to the Bruins on Friday and UC Irvine on Saturday, meaning they were the first of the four teams to be completely eliminated.

The loser of Sunday's matchup between the Sun Devils and the Anteaters will follow Fresno State. The winner will take on the Bruins in the regional final just a few hours after.

Much like any other double-elimination final, if UCLA loses, they will play another do-or-die game on Monday to see who advances to the Super Regionals. Which is a best-of-three series between two winners of each regional division.

The winner of the Los Angeles regional (UCLA's division) will play against the winner of the Austin Regional, which includes Texas, Kansas State, UTSA and Houston Christian (which has already been eliminated).

The Super Regionals cuts 64 teams down to just 16 in one fell swoop. Sixteen teams then turn into eight in Omaha for two more double elimination tournaments. Two of those eight teams advance to the finals for a best-of-three series.

But before all of that, the Bruins play their Los Angeles Regional Final against either ASU or UC Irvine at Jackie Robinson Stadium on Sunday at 10 p.m. EDT.

Ensure you follow on X (Twitter) @UCLAInsideronSI and @cmorenoNBA and never miss another breaking news story again.

Please let us know your thoughts when you like our Facebook page WHEN YOU CLICK RIGHT HERE.


Published
Connor Moreno
CONNOR MORENO

Connor Moreno is an alumnus of Arizona State and New Mexico State. Before joining the On SI team, he covered the NBA's Phoenix Suns as a beat writer, and now he serves as our UCLA Bruins writer for SI.

Share on XFollow cmorenoNBA