UCLA eliminated – UCLA’s run ends abruptly as the top overall seed is ejected from regional play by Saint Mary’s in a 6-5 extra-inning elimination game. The Bruins’ departure comes after two lead-bleed losses to the Gaels and caps a season that included a 52-8 record and Big Te
UCLA’s season didn’t end with a whimper. It ended with the kind of baseball moment that turns a celebrated identity on its head.
In regional play, the top overall seed Bruins were eliminated by Saint Mary’s after losing Sunday’s elimination game 6-5 in extra innings. The loss followed a regional opener two days earlier in which UCLA gave up a run in the ninth and fell to the Gaels 3-2.
The timing sharpened the blow. UCLA had been the nation’s most clutch team all season, finishing 30 games in come-from-behind fashion. The Bruins had also staved off an even earlier exit with a 6-5 walk-off win against Virginia Tech on Saturday.
But when it mattered most, the late-game script flipped. UCLA’s late-season heroics—so reliable that they seemed to define the team—weren’t enough to prevent the collapse in both losses to Saint Mary’s.
UCLA wasn’t the only high seed to go home early. No. 2 Georgia Tech exited after winning two straight to start its regional. including a 9-3 win against Oklahoma. before suffering back-to-back losses to the Sooners. Five other regional seeds were also knocked out: No. 8 Florida, No. 9 Southern Mississippi, No. 10 Florida State, No. 12 Texas A&M and No. 13 Nebraska.
Arkansas-Little Rock and St. John’s made sure the tournament still produced its share of shocks. The Trojans became the 11th No. 4 seed and the Red Storm became the 12th No. 4 seed to reach the super regionals. Arkansas-Little Rock topped host Southern Mississippi on Friday, then won two games against Jacksonville State. St. John’s toppled host Florida State twice, including the final game of the regional.
Regional play also carried a hard reminder of how quickly momentum can disappear. For the first time ever, none of the eight teams from the previous season’s College World Series field advanced to the super regionals.
Four teams missed the tournament entirely in Arizona—defending champion LSU, Louisville and Murray State, along with Coastal Carolina and Arkansas and Oregon State failing to get out of the weekend.
The market-style lesson of the first four days—if there is one—is that reputation didn’t guarantee survival. The results, whether shocking or expected, pushed the next round into a new shape.
Little Rock, one of the weekend’s biggest winners, moved forward after sweeping through Hattiesburg. It will face Troy, which captured the Gainesville regional with Monday’s 10-2 win against No. 8 Florida. St. John’s will meet No. 7 Alabama. Arkansas-Little Rock’s run marks the first time two No. 4 seeds reached the super regionals in the same season. and it’s the fourth year in a row that at least one has done so. following Murray State (2025). Evansville (2024) and Oral Roberts (2023).
The other seven No. 4 seeds to reach the super regionals are South Florida (2021), Davidson (2017), VCU (2015), College of Charleston (2014), Stony Brook (2012), Fresno State (2008) and Missouri (2006). Four of those teams went on to make the World Series—Murray State, Oral Roberts, Stony Brooks and Fresno State. Fresno State remains the only No. 4 seed to win the national championship.
West Virginia also seized a path forward in a weekend that required a late-season kind of persistence. The No. 16 Mountaineers beat Binghamton 10-1 in the regional opener, then found themselves in trouble after a Saturday 11-9 loss to Kentucky. On Sunday, getting out of that spot took a ninth-inning rally in the rematch against the Wildcats.
Down 9-6. West Virginia scored on a walk. a sacrifice fly and a balk to tie the game. then walked things off with a two-run homer. On Monday, the Mountaineers beat Kentucky 6-5 on an RBI single in the bottom of the 10th. West Virginia will next host Cal Poly, the surprising winner of the Los Angeles regional.
North Carolina’s weekend played out like a blueprint for staying alive in a tough bracket. The Chapel Hill regional was viewed as one of the deeper and more challenging bubbles of the weekend. and the Tar Heels avoided Tennessee. which went two-and-out against East Carolina and Virginia Commonwealth.
UNC did what it was supposed to do: it skunked the Rams on Friday. then beat ECU 7-5 and 9-3 to reach the super regionals for the third year in a row. One of the standouts was freshman left-hander Jackson Rose. who pitched four hitless innings in relief to help UNC win its second matchup against the Pirates.
Oregon, too, advanced with a performance built more on pitching and defense than raw power. The No. 11 Ducks won the Eugene regional by crushing Yale 14-2 in the opener. blanking Washington State 4-0 on Saturday. and then beating Oregon State 4-1 on Sunday. The Ducks scored with a patient approach at the plate. including a three-run seventh inning that helped put away the Beavers after Oregon reached on two bases-loaded walks and a fielder’s choice. Next for Oregon is Austin, where it will take on No. 6 Texas.
Still, the first four days belonged to teams that survived the chaos and teams that didn’t.
Georgia Tech’s exit felt like a collapse that started after the regional final looked within reach. Tech seemed ready for super regionals after beating Illinois-Chicago 22-5 and Oklahoma 9-3 to reach the regional final. Then Oklahoma struck back in dramatic fashion.
Oklahoma pounded out 18 hits in a 15-8 win to force Monday’s elimination game. and then the Sooners broke the Jackets’ hearts with an epic comeback from a 7-2 hole. Leading off the bottom of the 10th against Tech’s ace. Tate McKee. Sooners senior Dalton Tockey hammered a 3-2 pitch over 450 feet into dead center for the walk-off win.
Nebraska’s postseason ended after a loaded run-up that couldn’t find the next step. The No. 13 Cornhuskers sneaked past South Dakota State 4-1 in the opener, then lost 6-3 to eventual regional winner Mississippi and 11-8 to Arizona State in Sunday’s elimination game.
Even with the abrupt ending, Nebraska’s season had been strong. The Cornhuskers finished second in the Big Ten behind UCLA, won 42 games, and went 23-1 at home during the regular season. They were also named a regional host for the first time since 2008.
For UCLA, the end carried an especially sharp emotional edge because of how much the season had promised. The Bruins joined Vanderbilt last year as the only top seeds in tournament history to fail to reach at least their regional final. It was a what-if collapse that saw the Bruins cough up leads in their two losses to Saint Mary’s. undercutting their late-season performance.
The disappointment extended to the individual spotlight. Shortstop Roch Cholowsky, the projected top pick in this year’s MLB draft, went 2 for 12 in the regional with two strikeouts, one walk, one RBI and two runs scored.
UCLA finished the year with a 52-8 record and Big Ten titles in the regular season and tournament.
In the first four days, the message was simple: baseball punishes certainty. When the Bruins needed their late-game edge, it didn’t show up. And as top seeds fell—alongside the unusual absence of any previous College World Series teams reaching the super regionals—the tournament’s next stage has turned into something far less predictable than the seedings suggested.
NCAA baseball UCLA Saint Mary’s super regionals extra innings Roch Cholowsky Georgia Tech Nebraska Arkansas-Little Rock St. John’s
So UCLA just… got kicked out huh.
I swear the Bruins always choke when it goes extra innings. Like why can’t they just win normal? Also “top seed” means nothing apparently.
Wait did they get ejected like for fighting? The headline says the top seed got ejected, so I assumed a player got thrown out of the game or something. But then it’s like… a baseball elimination, so idk. Either way 6-5 in extra innings sounds like a robbery.
52-8 to lose 6-5 is brutal. I get it’s baseball but it feels like the “clutch” thing was a whole lie, like they only come back when it’s convenient. Saint Mary’s must’ve been pitching lights out in the 10th or whatever, but then UCLA had two lead-bleed losses? That’s on them, plain and simple. Also I thought Virginia Tech game meant they were unstoppable? Guess not.