NCAA baseball: UCLA heads to College World Series after shutting out UTSA

LOS ANGELES — The turnaround is complete.

After sputtering through its worst season in two decades, the UCLA baseball team completed a 180-degree spin in 2025, advancing to the College World Series for the first time in 12 years with a 7-0 win against UT-San Antonio on Sunday afternoon.

UCLA finished 19-33 last season, including 9-21 in its final season in the Pac-12, but will bring a 47-16 record to Omaha, Neb., for the eight-team CWS beginning Friday.

“We had a really tough year last year, we really could have had some guys leave, but I think they saw the heart of the program,” UCLA coach John Savage said. “They felt that they could turn the needle and, at the end of the day, that’s what they did. They did it together.”

The Bruins won their 11th game in a row on Sunday, sweeping the best-of-three super regional at Jackie Robinson Stadium with pinpoint pitching, stellar defense and clutch hits from their most important player to one who started just two previous games this season.

Toussaint Bythewood, a junior outfielder from Encino who mainly served as a seldom-used right-handed pinch-hitter this season, was in the lineup at designated hitter and he delivered a clutch two-out two-strike single in the fourth that broke a scoreless tie.

Roch Cholowsky, UCLA’s starting shortstop and one of 25 semifinalists for the Golden Spikes Award, which annually goes to the best amateur baseball player in the United States, dropped an RBI single into right-center field in the fifth to score UCLA’s second run.

The Bruins tacked on two more runs in the eighth and three in the ninth, more than enough for the Bruins’ pitching staff, which blanked UTSA over the final 16 innings of the super regional.

“We got outstanding pitching this weekend,” Savage said. “We had a bunch of naysayers saying that they questioned our pitching. You can’t question that now.”

UTSA’s leadoff batter reached base in four of the first five innings off UCLA starter Landon Stump, but he kept the Roadrunners from crossing the plate.

Savage went to left-hander Chris Grothues (4-1) after Stump hit No. 9 hitter Andrew Stucky to start the fifth, and Grothues got Norris McClure to hit into a double play before striking out Mason Lytle, pumping his fists at his side as he departed the mound.

Grothues did not allow a hit over 2⅔ innings of relief. Cal Randall relieved him with two outs in the seventh, but catcher Cashell Dugger threw out Jordan Ballin trying to steal to end the inning.

After a delay to replace the home plate umpire for medical reasons, August Souza pitched a 1-2-3 eighth for the second consecutive day, and Easton Hawk did the same in the ninth.

It added up to five innings of no-hit relief on Sunday and nine shutout innings for the bullpen for the weekend.

“They pounded the zone pretty good,” Savage said of the relievers. “It just seemed like we were very competitive. Came back into counts, won a bunch of 3-2 counts. … It was just a 9-on-1 operation.”

UCLA put its leadoff batter on base for the second time in the fourth when Roman Martin singled to right. He was erased on a double-play grounder, but Payton Brennan followed with an opposite-field line drive that left fielder Caden Miller misjudged, allowing the ball to carry over his head for a double.

Bythewood then fought off a two-strike pitch and dumped a soft single into right field, scoring Brennan from second for a 1-0 lead.

“He was ready for that opportunity, came up with a huge hit,” Savage said. “So happy for Touissant and his game today.”

The Bruins put their lead-off batter on base again in the fifth when No. 9 hitter Phoenix Call reached on a bunt up the first base line. He was sacrificed to second and then scored when Cholowsky lined a single into right-center field for a 2-0 lead, one pitch after UTSA coach Pat Hallmark paid a mound visit.

“I ran out and told him not to throw a strike to Roch, and he threw a strike,” Hallmark said.

AJ Salgado started the eighth with an opposite-field double off the glove of McClure at third.

Brennan then hit a line drive off UTSA pitcher Braylon Owens, and the ball caromed into foul territory. UTSA first baseman Lorenzo Morresi tried to flip the ball to Owens covering first, but the ball got away, allowing Salgado to continue home for a 3-0 lead.

Call then delivered a sacrifice fly to center to stretch it to 4-0.

Brennan came through with his third hit of the game in the ninth, lining an opposite-field two-run single to left to make it 6-0, and Bythewood followed with an RBI groundout for a 7-0 lead.

“They played clean baseball, and they’ve got a lot of talent,” Hallmark said. “They deserved to win.”