| Baseball |
|---|
| USC — 5 |
| UCLA — 7 |
Two consecutive postseason games with walkoff wins. Two comeback thrillers in a row, where the Bruins show the audience that their bats always have something left to give.
What do these games have in common?
Junior first baseman Mulivai Levu, the Bruins’ walkoff hero.
But this time, it was a walkoff by an electric three-run home run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth — on the Bruins’ last chance at redemption. Levu grasped this moment, and will now allow the Bruins to compete in the Big Ten championship game.
On Saturday, May 23, the No. 1 UCLA Bruins baseball team (50-6, 28-2 Big Ten) defeated the No. 4 USC Trojans (43-15, 20-10 Big Ten) in Omaha Nebraska, at Charles Schwab Field Omaha with a final score of 7-5.
In the winter and spring sports, UCLA has defeated USC on practically every matchup — just when it looked like there would be an upset, the Bruins showed them exactly why they were ranked the No. 1 team.
The Bruins had to battle through most of today’s game to get the win — USC struck early and had the lead for most of the game, putting the Bruins in an adverse situation that did not come around very often during the regular season.
Not only was this game strenuous for the offense, but the pitching had to also put in some work. The pitching staff performed well, with senior pitcher Michael Barnett taking the mound for the Bruins. He pitched 4.2 innings with three earned runs, one walk and two strikeouts on 86 pitches — a respectable outing, especially in a playoff game.
The bullpen did not allow another earned run for the rest of the game, gathering six more combined strikeouts, only having two unearned runs scored in the ninth inning off of sophomore closing pitcher Easton Hawk.
The scoring action for the Bruins started with an RBI single by Levu in the third inning which drove in junior shortstop Roch Cholowsky and freshman designated hitter Dominic Cadiz, and Cadiz then hit an RBI single in the fourth to drive in junior center fielder Will Gasparino.
But these efforts still had the Bruins trailing against the Trojans 2-3. That is, up until the seventh inning, when junior left fielder Dean West hit a two-run blast to right field to take the lead against the Trojans.
It is his sixth home run of the year, and comes after recently hitting a go-ahead grand slam against the Oregon Ducks in their heated Big Ten matchup. Point being, fans should always get a kick out of Dean West home runs, as they seem to all come during big moments.
The Bruins maintained this lead and went into the ninth inning with Hawk, the Bruins’ dominant closer, who sought to lock down the game for the Bruins and advance them to the Big Ten championship tournament.
But then, off of a fielder’s choice and flyout, two runs scored, and the Trojans took back the lead.
The Bruins went into the bottom of the ninth in a difficult situation — they were down by one run, and could have very well kissed their chances at competing for the College World Series title goodbye.
But then the Bruins did what they did best, especially against USC — fight them off. The inning started with a single from redshirt sophomore pinch hitter Aidan Espinoza, who was then swapped out for senior pinch runner Jarred Hocking, who advanced to second on a groundout.
West then drew a walk, putting two runners on and having one run in scoring position. Then, Cholowsky fouled out to first base, and just like that, the Bruins had two outs on them and were down to their last batter.
Then stepped up Levu. The rest was history. On the first pitch, an up and inside fastball, Levu took one of the biggest swings of his life, and crushed the ball to right center, driving in West and Hocking to walk it off for the Bruins.
The Bruins will now play a (likely) very heated Big Ten rematch against the Oregon Ducks on Sunday, May 24 at Charles Schwab Field Omaha at 12 p.m. PT and look to secure the title of Big Ten Champions.
