The UCLA baseball team, currently ranked No. 1 in the nation, is set to play its first midweek game of the 2026 season against Tulane at Jackie Robinson Stadium on Tuesday, February 17, at 1 p.m. PT. The matchup will be broadcast on B1G+ with Nick Koop providing play-by-play and Sid Iyer as analyst. Fans can follow live statistics through StatBroadcast and receive updates via X/Twitter (@UCLABaseball).
UCLA begins this season after being named preseason No. 1 by D1Baseball.com. The Bruins made their sixth College World Series appearance in 2025, their fourth under Head Coach John Savage, and advanced by sweeping through postseason play. Last year, they were selected as the No. 15 national seed and hosted an NCAA Super Regional for the first time since 2019.
Head Coach John Savage has led UCLA to seven super regional berths—six during his tenure—and the program has reached the postseason in 15 of the past 21 seasons. In conference play last year, UCLA won eight out of ten series to share the Big Ten Conference regular season title and claimed its first conference championship since 2019.
Roch Cholowsky was recognized as Big Ten Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year, also earning a First Team selection. Six Bruins received All-Conference honors: Cholowsky (First Team), Levu, Barnett, Martin, Salgado (Second Team), and Moss (Freshman Team). Under Coach Savage’s leadership over two decades, UCLA has posted a winning record in sixteen seasons.
Defensively, UCLA led all Division I teams in double plays turned (66) and double plays per game (1.00) last season. The Bruins went undefeated in all home weekend series at Jackie Robinson Stadium and finished with a home record of 31-7. Their .982 fielding percentage ranked seventh nationally and first in the Big Ten.
Cholowsky had one of the most accomplished individual seasons in program history: he was named Player of the Year and First Team All-American by four outlets (ABCA/Rawlings, Baseball America, D1Baseball.com, Perfect Game), won the Brooks Wallace Award for top shortstop nationally, led Division I in wins-above-replacement (WAR) at 6.49 according to data from 643 charts, hit .353 with 23 home runs—the most by a Bruin since Forrest Johnson’s mark in 2000—and posted a team-best OPS of 1.190.
Other notable achievements include Dean West breaking UCLA’s single-season hit-by-pitch record with 22; Michael Barnett ranking third nationally with twelve pitching wins; Mulivai Levu finishing second nationally with eighty-five RBIs; and Levu alongside Cholowsky combining for more RBIs than any UCLA duo since 1997.
UCLA opened its current campaign by taking two out of three games from UC San Diego last weekend. Friday’s win saw Payton Brennan drive in four runs as part of an eight-run comeback effort. On Saturday, home runs from Cholowsky, Cashel Dugger, and Brennan contributed to a comfortable victory behind strong pitching from Barnett and relievers. Despite dropping Sunday’s high-scoring finale after UCSD hit a decisive ninth-inning homerun for an 8-7 win, newcomers like Will Gasparino made significant contributions as UCLA started its season at two wins and one loss.
For Tuesday’s game against Tulane, freshman right-hander Angel Cervantes is scheduled to start for UCLA while senior J.D. Rodriguez will take the mound for Tulane.
Tulane comes into this matchup following three consecutive appearances in their conference tournament title game—winning twice—and returns much of its everyday lineup from last year’s thirty-three-win campaign. Key returning players include shortstop Kaikea Harrison and catcher Hugh Pinkney; new transfers are expected to add depth both offensively and on the mound.
In contrast to many college programs that rely heavily on transfer players each year, UCLA retains most of its roster production: eighty-three percent overall for this season—including eighty-five percent of plate appearances and seventy-eight percent of innings pitched—making it one of Division I’s most experienced teams.
Entering this season with significant recognition from national outlets: junior shortstop Roch Cholowsky was named Baseball America’s Preseason Player of the Year; junior first baseman Mulivai Levu earned Third Team honors; both were placed on the Golden Spikes Award Preseason Watch List along with previous honorees such as Cody Schrier (2023). Transfer pitcher Logan Reddemann appears on D1Baseball’s Preseason Pitcher Watch List while freshmen Angel Cervantes and Dominic Cadiz are listed among Freshman prospects to watch.
