< The Latest 2025-05-31T01:40:00+0000
The Pasadena Star-News | Fri 05/30 05:35pm PST | Staff and news service reports
Things couldn’t have gone much better for the UCLA and USC baseball teams in their NCAA regional openers on Friday afternoon.
Keyed by seven multi-hit efforts, 15th-seeded UCLA banged out a season-high 22 hits and rolled to a 19-4 victory over Fresno State at Jackie Robinson Stadium.
USC got three hits and three RBIs from Adrian Lopez to back a stellar start by Caden Aoki as the Trojans breezed to a 13-1 victory over TCU in Corvallis, Oregon, their first NCAA regional win since 2015.
Both teams advanced to winner’s bracket games on Saturday night.
Roman Martin went 4 for 6 with a home run, scoring three runs and driving in three more for UCLA (43-16). Blake Balsz, Payton Brennan, Phoenix Call and Mulivai Levu all had three-hit games, while Roch Cholowsky and AJ Salgado posted two each. Brennan and Cashel Dugger also homered. Levu drove in five runs, while Brennan plated four.
Chris Grothues (2-1) picked up the win in relief of Michael Barnett, who gave up two earned runs on six hits in 4⅓ innings. Jack Anker (9-5) took the loss, surrendering six earned runs on 10 hits in five innings. Bobby Blandford and Griffen Sotomayor logged two hits each for the Bulldogs (31-28), who got homers from Blandford and Eddie Saldivar.
Eight Bruins batted in the first inning and four of them came around to score. Leadoff man Dean West was hit by a pitch for the first of three times and made it home on Martin’s one-out single. A Salgado groundout cashed in Levu’s single and Brennan and Balsz added run-scoring hits.
Fresno State got on the board in the third, as a sacrifice fly by Griffen Sotomayor scored Cam Schneider. Schneider led off the inning with a single before moving over on a wild pitch and a groundout.
UCLA answered the Bulldogs’ third-inning run with two of its own. Martin’s second hit of the day carried over the left-field fence for his eighth home run. Salgado followed with a double and reached third on a groundout before Balsz singled him in.
Fresno State capitalized on a leadoff double by Blandford in the fourth, with Justin Stransky’s groundout bringing the run home following a wild pitch.
The Bruins broke the game open in the seventh, sending 10 to the plate and doubling their scoring output. Singles by Martin and Salgado got things started. Martin scored on a Brennan groundout and Balsz singled once more. Call and West added RBIs before Levu hit a bases-clearing double to left.
Saldivar and Blandford homered for the Bulldogs in the eighth, but UCLA would bat around again in the bottom half. Brennan smashed a two-run home run over the batter’s eye and Dugger added a solo shot. Levu and Martin registered two more run-scoring hits and Aidan Espinoza’s groundout made it 19-4.
UCLA will face Arizona State (36-22) on Saturday at 6 p.m. ASU held off UC Irvine, 4-2, on Friday night. Big West regular-season champion UCI (41-16) will face Fresno State in an elimination game on Saturday at 1 p.m.
In the Corvallis Regional …
USC 13, TCU 1: Aoki (6-4) gave up four hits in eight innings with six strikeouts and no walks for USC (36-21), which will face Saint Mary’s on Saturday at 6 p.m. The Gaels (35-24), the fourth seed in the regional, upset No. 8 national seed Oregon State, 6-4, on Friday night.
Lopez had an RBI single in the sixth and a two-run single in the seventh as USC scored three runs in each inning.
Aoki allowed his only run on a solo homer to Sawyer Strosnider in the fourth. Sax Matson pitched a scoreless ninth.
USC’s Brayden Dowd and Richard Tejeda had three hits apiece and combined for three RBIs and four runs scored. Abbrie Covarrubias went 0 for 2 but drove in two runs and scored three.
TCU starter Tommy LaPour (8-3) allowed three runs on six hits in three innings. Louis Rodriguez followed and was tagged for three runs in 2⅓.
TCU (39-19) will face Oregon State (41-12-1) in an elimination game on Saturday at noon.
USC has won the College World Series 12 times – most recently in 1998. The Trojans have made 21 appearances in the CWS but none since 2001.
The Horned Frogs have made six CWS appearances – most recently in 2023 – and never won it.