The 2026 UCLA Bruins baseball team is an absolute juggernaut. We’ve yet to see that juggernaut show up in the postseason though. While the Bruins won the Big Ten Conference tournament, it required three-straight walk-off wins.
The NCAA regional started even worse for UCLA, losing to Saint Mary’s 3-2 on their home field to put themselves in a do-or-die situation on Saturday versus Virginia Tech.
The good news for the Bruins is that they won’t be facing a California opponent on Saturday. UCLA is 51-7 on the season but five of those losses have come against California schools, including the loss to Saint Mary’s on Friday.
UCLA has lost to UC San Diego, San Diego State, UC Santa Barbara, Sacramento State and now Saint Mary’s. The other two losses both came from West Coast teams as well, with Washington and Oregon both snagging a game from the Bruins in Big Ten Conference action. USC, the second-highest ranked California college team is 0-4 versus the Bruins, including a 7-5 win in the Big Ten Conference tournament semifinals.
The Bruins will have to survive the Los Angeles Regional, which includes Cal Poly and Saint Mary’s. For UCLA to survive the regional, they’ll have to not only beat Virginia Tech on Saturday, but also beat both Cal Poly and Saint Mary’s.
UCLA is a tad short-handed due to injuries but the Bruins entered the tournament as one of the favorites to win the College World Series, so a failure to advance out of the Los Angeles Regional would be a disappointment regardless of how healthy the team is.
This article originally appeared on UCLA Wire: No. 1 UCLA can’t figure out mid-major California baseball teams
Reporting by Dylan McNeill, UCLA Wire / UCLA Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
