RJ Hamster
SI:AM | Unbelievable Upset in NCAA Baseball Tournament
DAN GARTLAND
Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. Take one guess which LIV Golf member credited AI with fixing his swing. Come on, you know who it is.
In today’s SI:AM:
🏀 Looking back at NBA conference finals
Drama on the diamond
Greg Fiore/Getty Images
The NCAA Division I baseball tournament began this weekend, and the best team in the country has already been eliminated.
UCLA earned the No. 1 overall seed after compiling an absurd 51–6 record, but the Bruins were knocked out after losing to Saint Mary’s on a walk-off single in the 10th inning on Sunday.
The Gaels had previously stunned UCLA on the opening day of the tournament on Friday, winning 3–2 after DH Jacob Johnson’s tiebreaking solo homer in the top of the ninth. UCLA then survived an elimination game against Virginia Tech on Saturday with a three-run rally in the bottom of the ninth, while Saint Mary’s was pushed to the losers’ bracket after suffering a 14–1 blowout loss to Cal Poly. That set up a rematch between the Bruins and Gaels on Sunday.
UCLA carried a 5–4 lead into the ninth inning, but Saint Mary’s, playing as the designated home team in UCLA’s Jackie Robinson Stadium, scratched across the tying run in the bottom of the ninth on a chopper that bounced over the head of the UCLA first baseman.
Makoa Sniffen ripped a single down the third-base line in the bottom of the 10th to drive in the winning run and end UCLA’s season. The Bruins had won 78 straight games when leading in the eighth inning or later.
UCLA’s loss was a historic one. The Bruins became just the second No. 1 national seednot to reach a regional final and the fifth not to reach the super regionals since the current format was introduced in 1999.
Unfortunately for Saint Mary’s, its Cinderella run didn’t last much longer. The Gaels lost to Cal Poly, 5–2, later in the day in the regional final. The Mustangs advanced to the super regional round for the first time in program history.
Elsewhere in college baseball action yesterday, Little Rock became just the 11th No. 4 seed ever to reach the super regional round when it knocked off Jacksonville State to win the Hattiesburg regional. In Morgantown, No. 16 West Virginia avoided elimination with a five-run rally in the top of the ninth against Kentucky. The Mountaineers won, 11–9, to set up a winner-take-all rematch against the Wildcats on Monday night. A few other top seeds are also on the ropes. No. 2 Georgia Tech, No. 4 Auburn and No. 8 Florida all must win elimination games today to save their seasons.
A bad night for UCLA softball, too
Sarah Phipps/Imagn Images
Sorry, UCLA fans. Your softball team also suffered a heartbreaking loss yesterday.
The Bruins lost a nine-inning thriller against Texas Tech in a Women’s College World Series elimination game, 8–7, and were knocked out of championship contention.
It was a wild game (complete with a sprinkler delay) that saw UCLA mount a season-saving comeback in the bottom of the seventh inning. Jordan Woolery’s two-run homer with two outs in the inning sent the game to extras, and Texas Tech took the lead on Kaitlyn Terry’s RBI double in the ninth. UCLA had one last chance in the bottom of the ninth, trailing by two. Woolery drove in one run, but the Bruins were unable to complete the comeback and extend their season.
The most interesting part of the game, though, was Texas Tech’s pitching strategy. Coach Gerry Glasco repeatedly swapped Terry and NiJaree Canady on the mound, moving the other into the field when they weren’t pitching. Neither pitcher was particularly sharp on Sunday, but by playing the matchup game with Canady, a righty, and Terry, a lefty, Glasco was able to get the most out of them.
It’s also worth mentioning that UCLA’s elimination marks the end of one of the best individual seasons in the history of college sports. The Bruins’ Megan Grant finished the season with 42 home runs in 63 games, shattering the previous single-season record set by Arizona’s Laura Espinoza (37 homers in 72 games). And while Grant won’t earn a championship ring on the diamond, she already has one for this year. She played 14 games this season as a reserve forward on the UCLA women’s basketball team. She didn’t play past early February, due to the overlap with the softball season, but the Bruins went on to win the national championship over South Carolina. A single-season record in one sport and a championship in another? That’s outrageous.
The best of Sports Illustrated
- The June 1 deadline is here, and Albert Breer reports in his takeaways column that Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown is all but certain to be on the move to the AFC. He also breaks down the Vikings’ front office setup and explains why Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels is one of the most intriguing players heading into the 2026 season.
- If Brendan Sorsby can’t regain his NCAA eligibility, the Texas Tech quarterback’s next move is to apply for the NFL supplemental draft. Breer chats with evaluators about how talented Sorsby actually is.
- Breer also has more quick-hit reports from around the league. He dives into the praise that wide receiver Luther Burden III is receiving from Bears coach Ben Johnson, where Alvin Kamara could go and how two cornerbacks could be due for hefty extensions.
- From Victor Wembanyama and his show of emotion to Kenny Atkinson and whatever analytics he was looking at, Liam McKeone and Blake Silverman break down the winners and losers from the Eastern and Western Conference Finals.
- Sophia Vesely provides four takeaways from the USMNT’s 3-2 exhibition win over Senegal.
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Bob Donnan/Imagn Images
👀 The top five …
… things I saw last night:
5. An amazing diving play by Oklahoma third baseman Camden Johnson.
4. Jose Siri’s home run robbery. Not just any home run robbery, though, a grand slamrobbery. (He also saved a buffet of food just beyond the wall.)
3. Christian Pulisic’s goal in the U.S. men’s national team’s pre-World Cup friendly against Senegal. Pulisic had not scored a goal in any match (for the national team or with his club team) since Dec. 28. His last goal with the national team was in November 2024.
2. An even better assist by Pulisic on Sergiño Dest’s opening goal.
1. All 13 runs the Yankees scored in the third inning against the A’s. New York sent 18 batters to the plate in the inning and was one run away from tying a 106-year-old franchise record for most runs in a single inning. Oddly, all 11 of the Yankees’ hits came in just that one inning, making them the first team in MLB history to score at least 13 runs in a game in which all of their hits came in a single inning.
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