The UCLA baseball team beat UC Irvine, 8-5, on Sunday night to complete an unbeaten run through its four-team regional and advance to an NCAA tournament super regional.
USC was positioned to do the same but was routed by host Oregon State in the Corvallis Regional on Sunday night, setting up a winner-take-all rematch between the Trojans and the Beavers on Monday at 3 p.m.
In Westwood, Mulivai Levu hit a three-run home run, Dean West and Payton Brennan added two RBIs apiece and UCLA jumped to a big lead and then held on to beat UCI at Jackie Robinson Stadium.
UCLA (45-16) clinched its first trip to the super regionals since 2019. The 15th-seeded Bruins will host UT-San Antonio, which upset No. 2 seed Texas to win its regional, in a best-of-three series next weekend.
UCI (43-17) had defeated Arizona State, 11-6, in an elimination game earlier Sunday. The Anteaters made back-to-back NCAA tournament appearances for the first time since they went to six straight tourneys from 2006-11.
Roman Martin’s RBI single off Finnegan Wall (0-1) in the first inning gave UCLA a 1-0 lead and the Bruins led the rest of the way. Cashel Dugger hit a single in the second that drove in Brennan, who doubled to lead off the inning, and then scored on a sacrifice fly by Roch Cholowsky to make it 3-0.
Dugger and Phoenix Call drew back-to-back walks to lead off the fourth and West followed with a bunt single to load the bases. Dugger scored on another sacrifice fly by Cholowsky and, after Levu’s homer, Brennan added a sacrifice fly to make it 8-0.
James Castagnola and Alonso Reyes each had an RBI for the Anteaters in the fourth, Anthony Martinez hit a two-run double in the fifth and Reyes hit a lead-off home in the sixth to cap the scoring.
Chris Grothues (3-1) came on in relief of starter Wylan Moss with one out and the bases loaded in the fourth. Grothues got Reyes to groundout, driving in Martinez, and struck out Blake Penso to limit the damage. Easton Hawk pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for his sixth save of the season.
In the Corvallis (Ore.) regional …
Oregon State 14, USC 1: Trent Caraway had a double, a home run and four RBIs and Gavin Turley also hit a homer as the No. 8 seed Beavers rolled to an easy win.
The winner of Monday’s game between USC (37-22) and Oregon State (44-13-1) advances to a super regional against No. 9 seed Florida State, which went unbeaten in its regional.
The Beavers – who lost, 6-4, to Saint Mary’s in their opener on Friday, then won games Saturday against TCU and earlier Sunday against Saint Mary’s, avenging their opening-round loss by beating the Gaels, 20-3 – have won three consecutive elimination games.
Oregon State starter Wyatt Queen gave up back-to-back singles to lead off the fifth, walked Ethan Hedges to load the bases and struck out Bryce Grudzielanek before Kellan Oakes came on and struck out Adrian Lopez looking and then got Abbrie Covarrubias swinging to end the threat. Oakes (3-0) had four strikeouts in 1⅔ innings before Zach Kmatz struck out seven across three scoreless innings for his first save of the season.
Wilson Weber and Caraway led off the second with back-to-back singles before a sacrifice bunt by AJ Singer moved both runners into scoring position. Weber scored on a bunt single by Canon Reeder, who was thrown out at second on a bunt by Dallas Macias, who reached on a fielder’s choice to drive in Caraway. Tyce Peteron – who finished with four hits – had an RBI single up the middle. Macias scored on a sacrifice bunt by Easton Talt to make it 4-0.
Maximo Martinez had an RBI single in the second for USC, which received one of the last four at-large berths in the 64-team tournament.
Brayden Dowd led off the first with a single but was thrown out at home when Hedges followed with a double. Dowd appeared to be shaken up after a collision at the plate and left the game in the second inning.
UC Irvine 11, Arizona State 6: Chase Call hit two of UCI’s five home runs in a Sunday afternoon elimination game victory over ASU. Alonso Reyes, Jacob McCombs and James Castagnola also went deep for UC Irvine.
Call and Reyes hit two-run home runs in a four-run fourth inning that gave the Anteaters a 6-1 lead.
UCI starter Ryder Brooks had a 7-2 lead heading to the bottom of the sixth but was pulled after allowing a two-run double by Brandon Compton. Ricky Ojeda replaced Brooks and gave up an RBI double by Beckett Zavorek to make it 7-5. Brooks was charged with five runs.
The Anteaters responded in the top of the seventh, scoring four runs that included a two-run home run by Castagnola.
Brooks (7-3) got the win. Ojeda and David Utagawa combined to allow one run in 3⅔ innings.
Derek Schaefer (3-1) allowed five runs in three-plus innings for the Sun Devils (36-24).
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