The top-ranked UCLA baseball team is set to participate in the Amegy Bank College Baseball Series at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, starting Friday, Feb. 27. The Bruins will face Tennessee on Friday at 1 p.m. PT, Texas A&M on Saturday at 5 p.m. PT, and Mississippi State on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. PT. All games will be broadcast via FloSports.
UCLA enters the series after a strong performance last week, having won all four of its games, including a sweep of No. 7 TCU with a combined score of 30-8 over the weekend. This start follows their selection as preseason No. 1 by D1Baseball.com and their share of the Big Ten Conference regular season title last year.
Roch Cholowsky and Will Gasparino currently lead NCAA Division I with six home runs each and have both recorded two multi-homer games in the past week. The team ranks sixth nationally with 17 total home runs so far this season.
Wylan Moss stood out in relief during Saturday’s game against TCU by striking out ten batters—including nine consecutive strikeouts to end the game—while Gasparino was named Perfect Game’s National College Player of the Week for his offensive contributions.
“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,” according to UCLA Athletics.
Mulivai Levu leads UCLA in batting average at .412, adding one home run and eleven RBIs to his record this season. Ian May has emerged as an effective bullpen option with a 2.08 ERA across four appearances.
UCLA returns much of its roster from last year, bringing back approximately 83 percent of overall production from its previous campaign—including most plate appearances and innings pitched—providing stability amid frequent transfer activity across college baseball programs.
The Bruins’ schedule for this weekend features Logan Reddemann (2-0, 3.60 ERA) starting Friday against Tennessee’s Tegan Kuhns (1-0, 0.73 ERA), Michael Barnett (2-0, 1.80 ERA) facing Texas A&M’s Weston Moss (1-0, 3.27 ERA) on Saturday, while Sunday’s starters are yet to be announced.
Opponents include Tennessee—which recently lost a weekend series to Kent State despite strong pitching from Landon Mack—Texas A&M coming off a sweep against Penn without issuing any walks over three games, and third-ranked Mississippi State dominating recent matchups behind Ryan McPherson’s standout performances.
Cholowsky was named Big Ten Player of the Year as well as Defensive Player of the Year last season and received multiple First Team honors along with national recognition such as winning the Brooks Wallace Award for best shortstop and leading Division I in wins-above-replacement (WAR).
UCLA also placed two players on Baseball America’s Preseason All-America teams: Cholowsky as Preseason Player of the Year and Mulivai Levu on Third Team; both were included on the Golden Spikes Award Preseason Watch List alongside pitcher Logan Reddemann who appeared on D1Baseball’s Preseason Pitcher of the Year Watch List.
The Bruins continue their campaign aiming to build upon their postseason achievements under Head Coach John Savage who secured his fifth conference championship last year.
