Brennan's 3 hits, 2 RBIs help UCLA beat UTSA 7-0 and win super regional, clinch berth in CWS
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Payton Brennan had three hits, two RBIs and scored two runs on Sunday and UCLA beat UTSA 7-0 to win the Los Angeles Super Regional and advance to the College World Series.
UCLA won its first super regional title since 2013 when the Bruins claimed the program's only national championship.
The No. 15 seed Bruins (46-16) advance to the College World Series and play the winner between Duke and Murray State in the CWS.
Brennan hit a two-out double and Toussaint Bythewood followed with an RBI single off starter Conor Myles (5-2) to give the Bruins a 1-0 lead in the fourth. Phoenix Call led off the fifth with a bunt single and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Dean West before Roch Cholowsky drove in Call with a single to left field that made it 2-0.
UCLA starter Brandon Stump hit Andrew Stucky with a pitch to lead off the fifth and was replaced by Chris Grothues (4-1), who got Norris McClure to ground into a 6-3 double play — the Bruins 63rd of the season, the most in the nation — before Mason Lytle struck out looking to end the inning.
Grothues, Cal Randall, August Souza and Easton Hawk combined for five no-hit innings of relief for the Bruins.
The Bruins added two runs in the eighth and three in the ninth, including Brennan's two-run single.
Umpire Eric Goshay was hit on the chin with a foul ball off the bat of Cholowsky in the seventh inning and left the field in the eighth. Second base umpire Travis Carlson moved behind the plate to accommodate for a three-man officiating crew.
UTSA (47-15) saw its historic season, including a new program single-season wins record, come to a close. The Roadrunners beat Kansas State in their opener at the Austin Regional for UTSA's first postseason win and then beat No. 2 national seed Texas twice to claim the program's first-ever regional title.
___
AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports
recommended
in this topic
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Dominion Post
an hour ago
- Dominion Post
END OF THE ROAD: LSU sweeps WVU in super regional
BATAN ROUGE, La. — West Virginia baseball's quest to kick down the Omaha, Neb. door will have to wait another year. For the second straight season, the Mountaineers dropped both games of a road super regional and ended the season one round shy of their first College World Series in program history. This one was a relentless onslaught at the hands of arguably the best team in the country, a 12-5 loss to LSU following Saturday's 16-9 defeat. BOX SCORE 'We never focus on other teams and what they do,' West Virginia head coach Steve Sabins said. 'Couldn't be more proud of our guys.' West Virginia (44-16) hung in for as long as it could, even bringing the tying run to the plate as late as the sixth inning on Sunday night. But LSU (48-15) just had too much offense, too many power arms and made far fewer mistakes as it secured its 20th CWS appearance in the last 39 years. Just like in Game 1, a pair of big innings made the difference. LSU blew the game open early with five runs in the second inning, all after West Virginia starter Jack Kartsonas retired the first two batters on nine pitches. Three consecutive walks loaded the bases, and Steven Milam delivered a three-run double down the right field line. Milam came around to score on Jake Brown's RBI single and after Brown advanced on a wild pitch, a misplayed infield pop-up allowed him to trot home with the fifth run of the frame and sixth of the game. After West Virginia put up four runs in the middle innings and knocked LSU starter Anthony Eyanson out, the visitors had legitimate traction for the only time all weekend. Sam White hit a solo homer, Ben Lumsden popped up with the unlikeliest of homers — just his second all season — to make it 6-3 and White delivered an RBI single in his next at-bat. 'I have great hitters in front of me and great hitters behind me,' White said. 'My job is just to pass it to the next guy.' Just in time for another costly dropped pop-up. The second aerial miscue of the night was the first of three errors in a nightmare seventh inning, allowing LSU to score six times and put the game out of reach, finally delivering the knockout punch after a heroic Chase Meyer relief performance kept the Mountaineers in the game. Chris Stanfield's two-run insurance created initial separation, Milam added another RBI single and Jake Brown belted a two-run home run off the batter's eye to complete the inning. Tally it up for the series and you get galling numbers. West Virginia pitchers issued 17 walks, hit eight batters and committed four errors, far too much help for an LSU team with more than enough talent to win without the lifelines. 'When you give great teams and great offenses additional opportunities or free passes, they answer,' Sabins said. 'We had more walks than what a championship team can do. The walks and hit-by-pitches allowed for baserunners to get on. Our pitchers were consistently in stressful situations.' Stack it up in total for year one of the Sabins era, and the total body of work was unquestionably positive. It was arguably the greatest season in West Virginia baseball history, even building on from last year's success of winning a regional for the first time ever. 'We broke the all-time win record at WVU,' Sabins said. 'We won the first outright Big 12 title in football, basketball or baseball at our university, and this program has never been in back-to-back super regionals. Those were big milestones, and that was something that we're proud of.' But at this moment, the pain was still there. West Virginia just had no answers across two games. Not for the heat, the intimidating away environment and definitely not for an LSU team which showed why it spent a chunk of the season ranked No. 1 nationally. It is on to reflection, transfer portal work and the long countdown to February 2026, as the Mountaineers will begin the Omaha chase again. 'I don't get sad about baseball results,' Sabins said. 'I get sad about the group of people that you work with for a year straight to try to build something special — which this group did — won't ever get to be together again. There is some sort of finality with that final out, that you're not going to get to be with that same group of kids.' If West Virginia ever crosses over those pearly gates of Omaha into college baseball heaven, teams like this one will be responsible for laying the foundation. Not this year, though.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
LSU baseball will see familiar foe in first game of College World Series
LSU baseball will see a familiar foe when it gets to Omaha for the College World Series. LSU's first game will be vs. SEC rival Arkansas. LSU and Arkansas both punched their tickets after completing sweeps on Sunday. Arkansas took care of business vs. Tennessee while LSU beat West Virginia. Advertisement The Tigers and Razorbacks met earlier this year in Baton Rouge, with LSU taking two of three for the series win. The Tigers won the Friday night meeting when Jared Jones scored on a walk-off sacrifice fly off the bat of Ethan Frey. LSU mercy ruled Arkansas in Game 2 before the Razorbacks got the best of LSU in Game 3. LSU and Arkansas are probably the strongest teams in the bracket, so meeting in Game 1 isn't ideal for either squad. The winner will be considered the national title favorite while the loser will have to play with its back to the wall. LSU's last trip to the College World Series came in 2023, where LSU also met an SEC foe in Game 1. The Tigers beat Tennessee to open their 2023 campaign in Omaha. This article originally appeared on LSU Wire: LSU baseball to see familiar foe in first game of College World Series
American Press
2 hours ago
- American Press
LSU bound for Omaha after sweeping super regional
SUNDAY'S GAME — LSU 12, West Virginia 5 LSU advances to the College World Series. Next stop, Omaha. Back where LSU always feels it belongs. There was the obligatory three-hour rain delay, of course, most of it under sunny skies, but another late, late night in Alex Box Stadium ended with a 12-5 victory over West Virginia and the customary victory lap around Skip Bertman Field to high-five with fans. It's LSU's favored path to the College World Series. Jake Brown and Steven Milam each had four RBIs as the Tigers scored double-digit runs in consecutive super regional games for the first time in their 17 appearances after beating the Mountaineers 16-9 on Saturday. For a few antsy moments, it looked like they might need all of them Sunday. But the Tigers answered a mid-inning WVU uprising with a 6-run seventh inning, capped by Brown's 2-run homer, and coasted home to sweep the two games. The Tigers took advantage of three Mountaineer errors in the big inning and loaded the bases with no outs on an error, a walk and hit batter before Chris Stanfield's 2-run single got it going. Derek Curiel later scored when Ethan Frey reached on a throwing error and Milam followed with an RBI double. Brown followed with a 2-run, 471-foot blast to dead centerfield. It will be LSU's 20th trip to the CWS, where the Tigers will be looking to add to their seven national championships, most recently two years ago. The Tigers, the No. 6 national seed, will face Arkansas, which swept its super regional against Tennessee, in their Omaha opener. The Tigers took two of three from the third-seeded Razorbacks in Baton Rouge during the regular season. The Tigers jumped all over WVU starter Jack Karsonas early and LSU's Anthony Eyanson (11-2) was dominant the first time through the Mountaineers' order. LSU led 6-0 after three and was cruising. The Tigers got a run on Brown's RBI ground out in the first inning and Milam had a 3-run double in the second, followed by back-to-back run-scoring singles by Brown and Jared Jones. But while reliever Chase Meyer shut the door on LSU for the next four innings, West Virginia got to Eyanson for three runs on pair of home runs in the fourth and added a run in the fifth to cut the lead to 6-4. Eyanson was lifted after hitting a batter on a 1-2 pitch to open the sixth. Freshman Cooper Williams came on and got three straight outs to end that inning and retired the first eight batters he faced before giving up a two-out solo home run in the eighth, followed by a walk. Chase Shores got the game's final four outs without allowing a baserunner.
