No. 24 UCLA Takes on LMU in Midweek Game

Dean West

Photo by: Ross Turteltaub

No. 24 UCLA Takes on LMU in Midweek Game

March 24, 2025 | Baseball

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LOS ANGELES - The No. 24 UCLA baseball team concludes its home stand on Tuesday, March 25 at 6 p.m. PT. The game will be streamed on B1G+ with Nick Koop and Sid Iyer on the call. Fans can also follow along with live stats (StatBroadcast) and X/Twitter updates (@UCLABaseball).

GAME INFORMATION
Venue: Jackie Robinson Stadium
Stream: B1G+
Talent: Nick Koop (play-by-play), Sid Iyer (analyst)
Live Stats: ucla.statbroadcast.com

THE RUNDOWN

UCLA cracked the D1Baseball top-25 for the first time since Feb. 19, 2024, slotting in at No. 24
The Bruins are also ranked in the Baseball America poll at No. 25
At 18-5, UCLA is off to its best start through 23 games since 2019
UCLA made it six consecutive winning weekends after taking two of three games over Indiana
UCLA has won 11 of its last 13 contests
UCLA is 14-3 at Jackie Robinson Stadium this season
Roch Cholowsky leads the team in hitting at .351, mashing seven home runs, collecting 27 RBI, and slugging .727
Mulivai Levu ranks fourth in the Big Ten for RBIs with 32
Levu leads the team with eight homers, which ranks sixth in the conference
Michael Barnett was dominant on Saturday afternoon, earning his conference-best sixth win (7.0 IP, 0 ER, 10 K)
Barnett ranks second in the nation with six wins this season
UCLA secured its first-ever sweep in the Big Ten era by winning three straight games over Nebraska
AJ Salgado's posted the first multi-homer game of his career with a pair of three-run bombs on March 15
Cholowsky hit a grand slam in back-to-back games (Feb. 23 vs. MSU, Feb. 25 vs. Arizona State)
Cholowsky was hit by a pitch three times on Tuesday, a first for UCLA in over a decade
Against Michigan, UCLA scored 20 or more runs in a game for the first time since its 23-0 win over Omaha (2/18/23)
Cholowsky's dramatic three-run homer gave UCLA the lead in the ninth inning on Friday night at Maryland
UCLA ranks 14th in the nation defensively with a fielding percentage of .982
Cholowsky launched a grand slam to spark UCLA's nine-run fourth inning in the comeback win over MSU
UCLA drew 15 walks against BYU, its most in a game since Feb. 18, 2024
UCLA enters its inaugural season in the Big Ten in 2025
In 2023, the Bruins welcomed the top signing class in the country
Roch Cholowsky returns for his sophomore season after receiving Freshman All-American acclaim (Perfect Game)
The program has posted 15 winning records in 20 seasons under HC John Savage
Duce Gourson, Cody Schrier, and Luke Jewett were selected in the 2024 MLB Draft
The Bruins were picked to finish fourth in the Big Ten Preseason Poll
Roch Cholowsky, Cody Delvecchio, and Dean West were named Big Ten Players to Watch
UCLA is coming off a 19-33 campaign, snapping a streak of seven consecutive winning seasons
Three transfer pitchers (Ian May - Cal, Ryan Rissas - UCSD, August Souza - Santa Clara) bolster UCLA's pitching staff

WEEKEND RECAP
UCLA dropped the series opener on Friday night, but rallied to win the Saturday and Sunday contests to secure its sixth-straight series victory. Seven strong innings from Michael Barnett and AJ Salgado's two-run blast in the sixth propelled the Bruins to victory on Saturday afternoon. Fueled by three-hit performances from Roch Cholowsky and Mulivai Levu, along with a strong start from Landon Stump, UCLA took down Indiana 6-3 in the series finale to claim the series victory.

PROJECTED PITCHING MATCHUP
Tuesday, March 25 - 6 p.m. PT
UCLA - Fr. RHP Wylan Moss (1-0, 2.70 ERA)
LMU – Fr. RHP Zach Bender (0-0, 5.11 ERA)

ABOUT THE LIONS
Loyola Marymount is coming off a series victory over San Diego in its first conference series of the season. UCLA has won 11 straight games over the Lions, with its last defeat coming in the 2019 Los Angeles Regional. The Bruins came back to defeat LMU twice and advance to a Super Regional that season. Grand Canyon transfer Beau Ankeney leads the team in hitting with a .384 average and eight home runs. Villanova transfer Cam Hassert is right behind him at .329 with five homers. UCLA is 21-6 against the Lions under head coach John Savage.

CARDIAC BRUINS
UCLA has scored first just eight times in its 23 games this season, racking up a total of 10 come-from-behind victories during its 18-5 start to the year. Remarkably, the Bruins have pulled off three comebacks after trailing by five or more runs. Notably, UCLA is undefeated when scoring first, posting a perfect 8-0 record.

DEFENSIVE EXCELLENCE
UCLA has made significant strides defensively this season, boasting a fielding percentage of .982 over the first 23 games, which places them 14th nationally. This performance is particularly impressive considering the school's record-setting fielding percentage of .982 in 2018, which ranked third in the nation that year.

BRILLIANT BARNETT
Michael Barnett dazzled in his outing on Saturday afternoon, tossing seven innings without allowing an earned run to pick up his conference-best sixth win of the campaign. His seven-inning outing is the longest by any UCLA pitcher this season. The right hander racked up a career-high 10 strikeouts against an Indiana team averaging 9.5 runs-per-game prior to the weekend, which ranked 15th in the nation. He retired nine consecutive batters between the second and fourth innings. Barnett is one of five pitchers in the country with six or more wins.

HE'S A ROCH STAR
With the Bruins down to their final out and trailing by two runs on Friday night of UCLA's Big Ten debut series, Roch Cholowsky provided the biggest swing of the game, blasting a three-run home run to give UCLA the improbable lead. UCLA's shortstop has three go-ahead home runs on the year, as well as a pair of grand slams. Cholowsky has collected 24 RBIs through the first 17 games of the season, smacking six home runs while slugging .714 on the year.

READY TO ROCH
UCLA sophomore shortstop Roch Cholowsky was named to the Perfect Game Preseason All-Big Ten team. Cholowsky is coming off an impressive freshman campaign with a team-leading .308 batting average and eight homers. The Chandler Ariz. native received Second Team Freshman All-American acclaim (Perfect Game) and a Pac-12 Honorable Mention nod. Cholowksy was the lone Bruin to start all 52 games. He was red hot in the closing stages of 2024, slashing .391/.452/.766 with seven home runs and 18 RBIs over the final 16 games of the season. Recently, Cholowsky was named the No.9 shortstop in the country by D1Baseball.com.

BRUINS PICKED TO FINISH FOURTH IN BIG TEN PRESEASON POLL
Big Ten Preseason Poll
1. Oregon
2. Nebraska
3. Indiana
4. UCLA
5. Michigan
6. USC

FRIENDLY CONFINES
With a sweep over Stanford in the final weekend of the 2024 regular season, UCLA clinched its ninth consecutive season with a winning record at Jackie Robinson Stadium. The Bruins have had a losing record at home just twice over the last 20 seasons, last occurring in 2014 (11-20).

MIDWEEK NOTES

UCLA is 42-18 in midweek contests since the start of 2019
The Bruins are 4-1 in midweek games this season and are undefeated on Tuesdays (4-0)
UCLA went 5-6 in 2024 in midweeks, defeating Nevada, LBSU, and UCSB at home, and LMU and Pepperdine away
In 2023, UCLA went 6-4 with wins coming against Pepperdine, Michigan, Long Beach State (2), LMU, and CS Fullerton
The Bruins had two midweek games rained out in 2023, and had one rained out last season.
AJ Salgado (.357 BA, .438 OBP), Payton Brennan (.357/.438/.536), Duce Gourson (.333/.481/.615, 3 HRs), Roch Cholowsky (.326/.415/.630, 4 HRs, 11 RBIs), Roman Martin (.294/.333/.706), and Cody Delvecchio (2.70 ERA in 6.2 IP) were all standouts in midweek competition in 2024.
The Bruins went undefeated in midweeks in 2019 (11-0) and 2021 (8-0)
UCLA won seven straight midweeks from Mar. 1 to Apr. 19, 2022

NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK
UCLA added 11 newcomers ahead of the 2025 season, including eight freshmen and three transfers. Coach Savage has bolstered his pitching staff with three pitchers joining via the transfer portal. Left-hander Ian May (California) will look to occupy a spot in the starting rotation after logging 20 starts and 90.0 total innings for the Golden Bears. Fellow southpaw Ryan Rissas (UC San Diego) helped lead the Tritons to their first-ever Big West title in 2023. August Souza (Santa Clara) brings 43 appearances worth of experience after spending a total of five seasons (including 2020 Covid-shortened season) at Santa Clara.