Michael Barnett flipped a weighted baseball into his hand and threw it against the side of the strength-training room next to UCLA’s clubhouse. Jostling through folding tables, water coolers, television stands and a post-game news conference podium, he resumed his pitching routine, as he would for any start, moving inside the weight room to stretch his right arm with resistance bands.
The junior right-hander’s pregame obstacle course — navigating university staffers, media and more — before trotting down to the bullpen, was outside of the ordinary. Friday afternoon at Jackie Robinson Stadium was different — from the energy on the concourse to the noise from the dugouts and ultimately, the power from the Bruin bats.
National 15 seed UCLA baseball was hosting its first regional since 2019 — and welcomed the Los Angeles Regional’s fourth-seeded team, Fresno State, with a season-high 22-hit and 19-run fury en route to a 19-4 victory.
A six-run, seventh-inning sent the Bulldogs unknowingly waving a white flag. UCLA first baseman Mulivai Levu struck a line drive off of the left-field wall, clearing loaded bases to provide the Bruins with a 12-2 lead. Fresno State’s nine players dejectedly walked off the field, as if they’d been walked off in a mercy-rule defeat.
But the field crew reminded the Bulldogs; in the NCAA tournament, no matter how much you’re trailing, both teams play nine innings. The Bruins would score seven more runs in the eighth inning.
It wasn’t Big Ten Player of the Year Roch Cholowsky — the 20-year-old who dreamed of Omaha when he selected the Bruins over the MLB draft — who led the offensive barrage that placed the game into rout territory in the first inning. The middle of the UCLA lineup helped produce a rally as they had all season.
Levu — who led the Bruins in regular-season RBIs with 74 and led UCLA with five RBIs against Fresno State — struck a single into left field to start the rally. Roman Martin brought home the first run with a single into left field. Payton Brennan and Blake Balsz (who tallied his third-career, three-hit game) connected for back-to-back run-scoring hits, solidifying the Bruins’ lead.
Before Fresno State starting pitcher Jack Anker knew it, UCLA had strung together four runs, creating a gap the Mountain West champions they would never make up. Martin connected for a third-inning solo home run — his seventh of the season — while Balsz hit a run-scoring single a few batters later.
UCLA tagged Anker for six earned runs and 10 hits across five innings, holding the Bulldogs junior, who entered averaging 10.5 strikeouts per nine innings, to just two strikeouts.
Barnett’s outing was an obstacle much like his pregame routine. The sinkerballer struggled with his command, throwing just 40 strikes in 74 pitches, and only lasted 4 ⅓ innings before UCLA coach John Savage pulled him with runners on the corners and one out in the fifth.
Southpaw Chris Grothues, a junior in his first season of high-leverage pitching opportunities, broke Barnett out of the inherited jam with a 3-6-1 double play to end the inning. Grothues then spun a scoreless sixth — placing the Bruins in cruise control for the rest of the contest, earning the victory.
Cholowsky, who led the nation in wins-above-replacement with 6.36 WAR, according to D1Baseball, still collected two hits Friday. Leadoff hitter Dean West was hit by a pitch three times, the last of which brought home a run to make it 9-2 in the bottom of the seventh.
Brennan hit a two-run home run in the eighth, while catcher Cashel Dugger also pulled a solo home run over the right-field wall to tally the Bruins’ 15th run.
UCLA advances to the winner’s bracket where it’ll face the winner of UC Irvine and Arizona State. The Bruins split midweek season series against both the Anteaters and the Sun Devils.
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