| Baseball |
|---|
| Oregon — 2 |
| UCLA — 3 |
The Bruins are working with some devil magic here. Three straight walk-offs. Three straight comeback wins. This Bruins team has the word “clutch” in their blood.
The clutch gene showed itself through redshirt sophomore pinch hitter Aidan Espinoza, who kept the game alive and is the sole reason that the Bruins have been crowned Big Ten champions.
On Sunday, May 24, at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Nebraska, the No. 1 UCLA Bruins baseball team (51-6, 28-2 Big Ten) defeated the Oregon Ducks (40-16, 20-10 Big Ten) in a thrilling and heated Big Ten matchup. The Bruins narrowly avoided elimination for three straight playoff games in Omaha.
This game was very much a pitcher’s duel, especially the first five innings. UCLA’s starting pitcher, freshman Angel Cervantes, had a stellar outing, pitching five innings, striking out five and walking three on 91 pitches.
Cervantes was tasked with shutting down a dominant offensive lineup, and he did exactly that today. In fact, the pitching staff was lights out today, with the hiccup of junior pitcher Justin Lee’s outing, where he allowed two runs without recording a single out.
This mistake from the Bruins would have cost the Bruins the game — that is, if the Bruins’ bats weren’t so prone to coming alive during late innings.
The scoring action from the Bruins today was minimal, aside from an RBI triple by junior center fielder Will Gasparino. The only scoring came during the ninth inning to keep the Bruins alive, as well as in extra innings.
The ninth inning looked grim for the Bruins — with two outs, the Bruins’ walk-off streak and their whole season could have ended right then and there. But in came the man, the myth, the legend, Espinoza.
In the playoffs, Espinoza has been a pinch hitter multiple times. Head coach John Savage definitely made the right call with this choice, as Espinoza hit an electric RBI single to right field, which drove in redshirt junior right fielder Payton Brennan to tie the game and keep the Bruins alive.
After giving Bruins’ fans a sigh of relief, UCLA built up that tension again during the 11th inning, where the Bruins had loaded the bases with zero outs on them. Victory looked to be a sure thing.
But then, Ducks’ pitcher Devin Bell struck out the next two batters, junior catcher Cashel Dugger and Espinoza. It looked like the Bruins might have sold this winning opportunity.
Then, up to the batter’s box came junior second baseman Phoenix Call in a high-stakes situation with the bases loaded.
On the first pitch from Bell, an up-and-inside 90-mph sinker clipped Call’s helmet, resulting in a walk-off walk which drove in junior third baseman Roman Martin and crowned the Bruins as Big Ten champions. Though the call was under a lengthy video review on the umpires’ own accord, the call stood and the final score of 3-2 was made official.
Today’s game was yet another stunning example of how resilient the 2026 UCLA Bruins team is — they will look to continue using this resilience to compete for a College World Series title.
