OMAHA, Neb. — With a flair for the dramatic and its back against the wall, UCLA baseball outdid itself Sunday in Omaha, walking off the Oregon Ducks in the 11th inning for a 3-2 victory that clinched the Bruins’ first Big Ten tournament championship.
With two outs and the bases loaded, Bruins second baseman Phoenix Call was nicked on the shoulder by an inside fastball from Ducks reliever Devin Bell. With nowhere to put Call, the hit batsman brought home the game-winning run as UCLA picked up its third walk-off win in as many days. A lengthy replay review delayed the Bruins’ postgame celebration, but did not produce conclusive evidence to overturn the call on the field.
Two innings earlier, UCLA was down to its final out.
After completing a pair of improbable late-inning comebacks Friday and Saturday, surely the Bruins would run out of magic at some point. Then designated hitter Aidan Espinoza stepped into the batter’s box with his team trailing 2-1. With a runner on second base and two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, the redshirt sophomore punched a single through the right side of the infield to score the tying run.
UCLA’s 51st win of the season was also its 10th come-from-behind victory when trailing after the sixth inning.
“We’ve been doing it all year, but to do it in this environment, I think it’s really big,” Bruins outfielder Payton Brennan said. “And against a really good team in Oregon, that’s huge for us moving forward. We’ve done it before, so we always know we can do it again. It’s not just one person, it’s a team game. We get one guy on, and someone’s going to do a job, and you just trust the other guy to keep doing the job.”
The thrilling victory came over the team that two weeks earlier had handed UCLA its first of only two Big Ten losses this season. However, the win came at a price for the Bruins.
Moments after he ripped an RBI triple to left field to give the Bruins a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the fourth inning, Will Gasparino was ejected after a collision with Ducks third baseman Drew Smith.
Running on contact, Gasparino was caught in a rundown after Bruins teammate Cashel Dugger hit a ground ball to third base. The rundown allowed Dugger to advance to second base, but as Gasparino dashed back to third base, he barreled into Smith and his elbow caught Smith’s face.
After replay review, the umpiring crew ruled the play malicious contact. Per NCAA rules, Gasparino will be suspended for UCLA’s next game, the Bruins’ first NCAA regional contest.
“It was an unfortunate play in the heat of the moment,” UCLA manager John Savage said. “He did his job, he stayed in a rundown and got Dugger to second base, but the end of the play was unfortunate.”
Oregon manager Mark Wasikowski wasn’t pleased with the ruling, either.
“I really hope that the NCAA takes a really hard look at some of these things that they’re putting umpires in a really bad spot with trying to police the game of baseball,” Wasikowski said. “I think the Gasparino kid is a really good, hard player. I haven’t watched the tape on the whole thing, but I don’t want to see anybody suspended for postseason play, and I’d be extremely disappointed if he was suspended for postseason play by just coming out and playing a game really hard.”
The loss of Gasparino will sting. The 6-foot-6 junior has started 56 games for the Bruins this season, batting .316 with 19 home runs and 62 RBIs. The Harvard-Westlake product is expected by many to have his name called on the first day of July’s MLB Draft.
The Ducks erased a 1-0 deficit in the sixth inning, when catcher Burke-Lee Mabeus and designated hitter Naulivou Lauaki Jr. launched back-to-back home runs to give Oregon a 2-1 lead. The two solo homers accounted for the Ducks’ only runs.
Bruins starting pitcher Angel Cervantes tossed five scoreless innings, allowing four hits and three walks while striking out three. The 18-year-old was selected out of Warren High in the second round of last year’s MLB Draft, but opted to attend UCLA instead of signing with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
“As a kid, I’ve always seen colleges play here (in Omaha),” Cervantes said. “This was a dream to play here. To be able to pitch here and start a game here, you can’t really ask for anything else.”