UCLA Baseball has suffered a startling loss against the Saint Mary’s Gaels, despite coming in as the No. 1-seeded team in the tournament. The Bruins suffered a catastrophic opening-round collapse against Saint Mary’s with a 3-2 scoreline that has now got the entire baseball community lambasting UCLA.
Day 1 of the 2026 NCAA baseball tournament saw the No. 1 seeds go down against the Gaels after expectations had skyrocketed for UCLA since their 11-inning victory against Oregon for the Big-Ten championships. The Gaels, on the other hand, were seeded No. 4 and had a 34-25 season along the way to the Regionals.
The star pitcher of the Gaels was John Damozonio, alongside Jacob Johnson, who smashed his second home run in the night and final innings. Pitcher Cam Staton also stood out for striking out two Bruins and weathering a single from UCLA’s Phoenix Call, and ultimately forced Roch Cholowsky into a flyout, thereby winning the match.
Fans have now taken to their social media and highlighted how UCLA baseball have always been overrated due to facing weak competition inside the Big Ten conference.
One user wrote:
“most overrated team in history. they faced italians from rutgers throwing 84 mph. going 28-2 in conference says more about the competition they faced than it does them being good”
Another user wrote:
“UCLA WILL ALWAYS BE LITTLE BRO ✌️😂”
Someone wrote:
“What an absolute embarrassment!!”
One user mentioned:
“UCLA should not have been the national one seed. The big 10 had less bids than the sun belt. Less quad 1 wins than almost all hosting regionals. Who would have thought beating bad teams by 1 run wouldn’t sustain in the tournament. Needed 3 walk offs in the big 10 tournament.”
Another commented:
“UCLA loses to California teams all the time. 2026 losses, UCSD, Sacramento State, San Diego State, Saint Marys!”
As the regional round follows a double-elimination format, the Bruins are scheduled to get another shot at staying in the tournament if they can take out Virginia Tech next.
UCLA Baseball Coach John Savage Gives an Update on the Team after California Loss
UCLA baseball coach John Savage got the first word in at the post-game conference and gave his thoughts on what went wrong during the match that led to the upset vs Saint Mary’s.
“Both teams played really good defense. We just didn’t do enough offensively to put ourselves in a position to create runs at the end of the day. It’s a tough call, but there’s a lot of baseball left for us to play,” said Savage.
Savage also handed credit to Saint Mary’s Gaels for their game play, while highlighting how the Bruins themselves have been part of close games that could go either way.
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