Life in the Valley

Balanced Bruins Won Big 10 Regular Season Crown; 5-0 in NCAA Tournament

The nicest field. The brightest lights. The biggest stage.

While Murray State takes it all in during their first trip to Omaha for the College World Series, it’s important not to lose sight of the business at hand. Saturday, the Racers hit the field for the first time in this CWS against the Big 10 regular-season champion UCLA Bruins (47-16). The matchup is the first of 2 on Saturday, with Arkansas/LSU serving as the nightcap.

There’s no question that head coach Dan Skirka will have the Racers prepared for their task in Omaha. His ability to keep the team grounded and driving toward more success while also staying humble and quietly confident has served Murray State well throughout this tournament. He reminds me a bit of former Virginia men’s basketball coach Tony Bennett. Nobody thought UVA could win a title, either … until they did.

There were no jitters when the Racers had to play a winner-take-all game against Ole Miss in Oxford. Murray State just went out and hit like it always does.

The same was true when the Racers fell behind 1 game to none in Durham last weekend in the Super Regional. They pounded the Blue Devils in Game 2 to even things up, then got winning contributions from all over the roster on Monday night, downing Duke, 5-4, to advance to this College World Series.

The road ends in Omaha, win or lose. Eight teams are left looking for a national championship – with Murray State, Louisville, and Arkansas all seeking their first title. It’s a fantastic field, with legendary programs like LSU, Oregon State, and Arizona here, who have combined for 14 CWS crowns. Coastal Carolina and UCLA are also former champs, winning in 2016 and 2013, respectively.

To have all that pedigree and a Cinderella? It should make for great theatre. Much has been said about how this field comprises 6 different conferences – 7 if you count Oregon State as a member of the temporarily departed Pac-12. That’s not to say last year’s invitational featuring only ACC and SEC teams in Omaha, won by Tennessee, wasn’t fun to watch, but the variety in this group adds to the drama – not to mention none of the Omaha 8 from 2024 are back in ’25.

But once the first pitch is thrown for Friday’s 2 games, most of that talk goes out the window. And when Murray State takes the field Saturday, it will face a UCLA team with deep pitching, great fielding, and a star player in SS Roch Cholowsky, who fittingly wears #1 and leads the Bruins in average (.367) and homers (23), while he’s 2nd in RBIs with 73. Cholowsky is currently riding a modest 5-game hitting streak, going 8-for-23. But the Bruins are undefeated in those 5 games, yet to lose in the NCAA Tournament after sweeping the Los Angeles Regional and then eliminating UT-San Antonio in 2 straight games in Super Regionals. Prior to an 0-for-4 vs. Nebraska in the Big 10 Championship Game, Cholowsky had hit in 21 straight games. He’s walked 44 times to just 29 strikeouts this season and carries a 1.236 OPS.

Any team would love to have Cholowsky, but he’s far from UCLA’s lone weapon. Mulivai Levu leads the team in RBIs with 85 and is 2nd in the country, just 1 behind High Point’s Landen Johnson. Five Bruin regulars are hitting at least .313 and the Bruins have 110 doubles (Cholowsky leads with 19). The Bruins will steal a base if need be (60-for-78 on the season, led by 13 from A.J. Salgado), and UCLA is no slouch defensively, either, 8th in the country with a .982 fielding percentage.

While outs in the Bruin lineup are few, scoring on their pitching staff might be more of a challenge. UCLA has outscored its opponents this season, 510-296, and the team has a 4.41 ERA. Starters Michael Barnett and Landon Stump have been almost unbeatable, combining to go 18-2 in 30 starts. Barnett has struck out 71 and walked just 18 in 81 1/3 innings en route to a 12-1 mark with a 4.09 ERA. Stump is 6-1, 4.54.

Neither starter tends to go very deep into games, however, and the Bruins deploy a wealth of quality bullpen arms to deal with that. Jack O’Connor is 3-0 with a 1.80 ERA and sub 1.00 WHIP in 24 appearances. Cal Randall is 2-1, 3-09 in 26 appearances, striking out 26 in 23 1/3 innings. Easton Hawk leads the Bruins with 7 saves – he’s fanned 28 in 22 1/3 innings. Justin Lee leads the team in appearances with 29 and has 5 saves. UCLA pitchers are holding opposing hitters to a .243 average, far less than the .298 the lineup is hitting.

The Bruins and Racers have no common opponents this season. Among teams familiar to Valley schools from non-conference play, UCLA beat Michigan State (15-5), lost to Vanderbilt (8-3), won 2 of 3 vs. Indiana, swept 3 at Purdue and at Illinois, and took 2 of 3 at home vs. Northwestern. They beat Illinois, Michigan, and Iowa in the Big 10 Tournament before falling to Nebraska in the final.

UCLA is 16-9 away from home this season, 11-8 on the road and 5-1 at neutral sites. The winner of Saturday’s game will take on the winner between Arkansas and LSU. The loser meets the loser of that 2nd game in an elimination contest on Monday.

Ed Morgans is the founder of MVCBaseball.com. An Evansville graduate, Ed has written about and broadcast college baseball, while following the sport for 40 years.