The UCLA baseball team, currently ranked No. 1 in the nation, is set to conclude its eight-game home stand by hosting San Diego State at Jackie Robinson Stadium on Tuesday, Feb. 24 at 5 p.m. PT. The game will be streamed on B1G+ with commentary from Nick Koop and Sid Iyer. Fans can also follow live statistics via StatBroadcast and updates on X/Twitter through @UCLABaseball.
UCLA began the season as the top-ranked team according to D1Baseball.com and recently completed a strong week, defeating Tulane and sweeping No. 7 TCU in a three-game series. Over the weekend, UCLA outscored TCU by a combined total of 30-8.
Players Roch Cholowsky and Will Gasparino are tied for first in NCAA Division I home runs this season, each recording six home runs so far. The Bruins have hit 17 home runs as a team, ranking fourth nationally. Both Cholowsky and Gasparino had two multi-home run games last week.
Pitcher Wylan Moss made an impact during his relief appearance on Saturday by striking out 10 batters, including nine consecutive strikeouts to end the game. Gasparino was named Perfect Game’s National College Player of the Week following his performance. Both Gasparino (Player of the Week) and Moss (Pitcher of the Week) received Big Ten weekly honors—the program’s first since joining the conference.
Reflecting on last season, UCLA made its sixth appearance at the College World Series (CWS), advancing after sweeping through postseason play under Head Coach John Savage. The Bruins were selected as the No. 15 national seed and hosted their first NCAA Super Regional since 2019, earning their seventh super regional berth overall and sixth under Coach Savage.
Mulivai Levu leads UCLA in batting average this season with .467, one home run, and ten RBIs. Ian May has emerged as a key bullpen arm with a 2.08 ERA over four appearances and twelve strikeouts.
Roch Cholowsky was recognized as Big Ten Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, and received First Team honors last season. He was also named Player of the Year and First Team All-American by four outlets—ABCA/Rawlings, Baseball America (BA), D1Baseball (D1B), and Perfect Game (PG)—and won the Brooks Wallace Award for top shortstop in college baseball.
“Will Gasparino and Wylan Moss swept the Big Ten’s weekly awards after powering the No. 1 Bruins to a 4-0 week capped by a sweep of No. 7 TCU, marking the program’s first conference honors since joining the league,” stated UCLA Athletics in their release.
Cholowsky led all players nationally in wins-above-replacement (WAR) last year according to data compiled by 643 charts with a mark of 6.49.
For Tuesday’s matchup against San Diego State, freshman right-handed pitcher Angel Cervantes is expected to start for UCLA while redshirt sophomore Alec Belardes will start for SDSU.
San Diego State enters this season under new head coach Kevin Vance after significant roster changes following a challenging previous year that saw them finish with a record of 20-39. Nearly seventy percent of SDSU’s roster has been replaced with transfers such as Rohan Lettow, Drew Talavs, Alec Belardes on pitching staff along with Arizona bullpen arms Bryce McKnight and Carson Johnson; Aidan Russell is expected to anchor late innings pitching duties. Stephen Strasburg returns as special assistant to enhance player development efforts for SDSU.
Only two regular position players return for SDSU: outfielders Zane Kelly and Jake Jackson; however they have added several impact transfers including Adam Magpoc at leadoff plus an Oregon State-built infield featuring Dawson Santana, Jabin Trosky, Tyce Peterson.
Despite heavy transfer movement across college baseball programs nationwide this offseason, UCLA retained most of its core talent—returning eighty-three percent of overall production from last year including eighty-five percent of plate appearances and seventy-eight percent of innings pitched—making it one of Division I’s most stable rosters heading into this season.
Two Bruins earned preseason recognition from Baseball America: junior shortstop Roch Cholowsky was selected Preseason Player of the Year while junior first baseman Mulivai Levu made Third Team Preseason All-America; both were named to Golden Spikes Award Preseason Watch List alongside Logan Reddemann who appeared on D1Baseball’s Preseason Pitcher Watch List; freshmen Angel Cervantes and Dominic Cadiz featured on Freshman Watch List.
