After holding down one of the best offenses in college baseball to four hits on Saturday night, the Tigers face another good offensive team on Monday night in a winner’s bracket game.
The 15th seeded UCLA Bruins have 650 hits on the season, which is the 12th highest in the country.
UCLA has one of the top players in the country in shortstop Roch Cholowsky, a potential number one pick next season. Cholowsky was named the Big 10 Player of the Year, and he’s put up some unbelievable numbers. Cholowsky is hitting .362 with 23 home runs and 74 RBIS. He’s also hit 19 doubles, and he has struck out just 29 times.
Mulivai Levu is another sophomore stud who has hit .319 with 12 home runs and 85 RBIs.
Another sophomore, Payton Brennan, has been outstanding during the postseason, hitting .500 (19-for-38) in UCLA’s 10 postseason games. The outfielder also has 14 RBIs and scored 10 runs.
Roman Martin, also a sophomore, is swinging a hot bat, and he’s second on the team with a .320 average, nine home runs, and 60 RBIs.
It will be up to LSU’s Anthony Eyanson (11-2, 2.74 ERA) to hold UCLA down. The Lakewood, California, native said it was a 45-minute drive from his hometown to the UCLA campus, but he never really considered playing for the Bruins. Even though he grew up going to Bruins games and his youth baseball coaches are UCLA fans.
Landon Stump will likely start for the Bruins. A sophomore right-hander who is 6-1 this season with a 4.54 ERA. Stump has struck out 62 times in 73.1 innings.
Freshman right-hander Easton Hawk has emerged as UCLA’s starter. He collected his eighth save on Saturday and only threw 18 pitches, so he should be good to go on Monday night.
UCLA’s bullpen has been really good. They had a stretch of 16 consecutive scoreless innings until giving up a run in the sixth inning against Murray State.
Since the Bruins are starting a right-hander. Expect Derek Curiel back at the top of the order. After his 0-for-5, five-strikeout performance on Monday, Coach Jay Johnson will likely move Jones down in the order like he did in the Regional against Little Rock.
This is UCLA’s sixth appearance in the College World Series and first since 2013. The Bruins lone national championship came in 2013. They beat the Tigers 2-1 in Omaha this season.
This is a UCLA team that is 48-16 after going 19-33 last season.
A win for LSU, and they move one more victory away from reaching the College World Series championship series. A loss means the Tigers would need to win three straight games to stave off elimination and get to the CWS championship series.
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