LOS ANGELES — As Saint Mary’s mobbed Makoa Sniffen behind second base, UCLA head coach John Savage walked to shake his counterpart Eric Velasquez’s hand. Left fielder Dean West, beside himself, crouched in left field. Shortstop Roch Cholowsky and third baseman Roman Martin hugged as they realized, in real time, their UCLA baseball careers had likely concluded.
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This is what it looks like to taste your own medicine.
After earning their last four victories in walk-off fashion, the Bruins’ season ended in sudden death. In the bottom of the 10th inning, Sniffen singled to left field and Cody Kashimoto scored from second base, clinching the 6-5 finish.
UCLA (52-8 overall) didn’t lose a series all season, going 28-2 in Big Ten play, but Saint Mary’s (36-26) essentially ended that streak, beating the No. 1 overall seed twice in two games over the past three days. UCLA is just the fifth No. 1 national seed to fail to advance out of its own regional since the tournament expanded in 1999 and just the second to not even reach the final of its four-team regional.
“Obviously,” Savage said, “this weekend, we did not play up to our standard.”
Season-long Stalwarts Cholowsky and closer Easton Hawk, especially. Cholowsky finished the weekend 2 for 12, while Hawk earned the loss in both matchups against the Gaels, on top of a blown save Sunday.
David Roberts earned the win for Saint Mary’s as he held UCLA scoreless in the top of the 10th, but bulk reliever Cam Staton was untouchable again. In two outings against the Bruins, he worked 6⅔ innings without allowing a run, while striking out eight batters.
“We played three days to where the ballpark was really hot, and when I mean hot, I mean very offensive, and we just were not that offensive,” Savage said.
Along with the decisive walk-off, Sunday opposed recent UCLA games as the bats came out hot and went quiet through the last five frames.
Martin brought Cholowsky home in the top of the first inning to start the scoring. Trey Gudoy bagged an RBI double and a run scored in the second inning.
Saint Mary’s starter Sam Kretsch settled in throughout the third and fourth innings, putting the Bruins down in order. But the Bruins extended their lead in the fifth. West lined a home run beyond the right field fence. Then came Staton’s lone blemish as he entered the game with the bases loaded and hit Will Gasparino on his first pitch to bring in Cholowsky.
Trailing by three, the Gaels fought back. Friday’s villain, Jacob Johnson, boomed one over the left field fence in the bottom of the fourth inning. Staton settled into his dominating ways, striking out Aidan Aguayo and Cashel Dugger as UCLA left three runners – of a total 10 – on the bases in the fifth inning. He sat down three more Bruins over the next two frames to keep Saint Mary’s in striking distance.
Chris Grothues relieved UCLA starter Angel Cervantes midway through the fifth inning, and immediately found trouble. Inheriting a runner on first, Grothues’ first pitch trickled behind the catcher Dugger and Kashimoto advanced to second. Kashimoto then came around to score on Diego Castellanos’ single. Johnson’s next at-bat sprang nightmares of Friday’s ninth-inning winner as his towering fly ball kept carrying in right field, but this time Phoenix Call leaped at the wall to snag it.
Cal Randall entered in the eighth inning and made easy work of the Gaels. With UCLA leading by one, Savage stayed with Randall to start the ninth inning.
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“Wanted to try and steal one, potentially, and have Easton available tonight,” Savage explained.
A forward-thinking but risky maneuver. It ultimately proved too cute, backfiring on the Bruins.
Randall conceded a leadoff single to Tanner Griffith and Savage was forced, he said, to turn to Hawk. With one out and Griffith in scoring position, Ian Armstrong chopped a game-tying single over Mulivai Levu’s glove at first base. Hawk issued two walks to load the bases, but Jared Mettam grounded out to third to ensure extra innings.
Despite conceding the lead, Hawk remained in the game for the 10th inning. Kashimoto reached base on an infield single. Sniffen stepped up with two outs and pulsed his clutch gene, finding the hole between Martin and Cholowsky as Kashimoto sprinted around third base and dove headfirst into home plate.
It was a devastating way to end what seemed destined to be a special season.
“I feel for them,” Savage said of his players. “Great, great people. Very loyal guys. … That’s a tough clubhouse to leave. Those guys have been such wonderful Bruins.”
Savage, a monotone leader, showed a single spec of emotion when asked about Cholowsky’s impact on the program.
He and the core of this UCLA roster arrived in Westwood ahead of the 2024 season, enduring a developmental year without a postseason appearance. The Bruins advanced to the College World Series in 2025, ultimately losing to Arkansas and LSU, the eventual champion. After earning those battle scars, fittingly, 2026 was when everything would come together.
Throughout the regular season, it did. UCLA was seemingly unbeatable, sustaining the No. 1 ranking from beginning to end and setting a program record with a 27-game winning streak that spanned late February through mid-April. But in mid-April, the Bruins lost their best starting pitcher, Logan Reddeman, and despite winning nine of their last 11, played hotly contested games, putting their bullpen in a bind, narrowly escaping defeat time and again.
“I don’t think we played up to our standards the last couple weeks,” Savage said.
It all crested in the regional, where UCLA’s storybook season concluded without its happy ending.
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