Whether the Bruins retain their top spot in the Big Ten standings will be out of their control this weekend.

No. 14 UCLA baseball (23-5, 10-2 Big Ten) will face San Diego (6-22, 3-3 WCC) in a three-game series at Jackie Robinson Stadium beginning Friday and concluding Sunday. While the rest of the Big Ten will continue to battle each other over the weekend, this series will be the Bruins’ first weekend away from conference play since it commenced March 7.

A San Diego sweep would tie UCLA with the 2010 Bruins for the best 31-game start to a season in program history since at least 1966, but coach John Savage said he doesn’t expect its upcoming mid-major opponent to go down easily.

“They’ve played … the toughest schedule in the country,” Savage said. “We know they’re going to be very competitive.”

San Diego has lost all nine of its contests against ranked opponents this year, losing four times to then-No. 23 TCU, thrice to then-No. 8 Oregon State and once to then-No. 16 UC Santa Barbara before falling 16-7 to No. 12 UC Irvine on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, UCLA has lost its only game against a ranked opponent, falling 8-3 to then-No. 14 Vanderbilt on Feb. 28. However, the Bruins still boast the nation’s sixth-best RPI, per D1Baseball.

After the Bruins swept the Boilermakers on Sunday, Savage said the blueprint for success is getting five innings from their starting pitcher before turning it over to their bullpen. While UCLA is 10-2 when getting at least five frames from its starter, it’s only accomplished the feat in less than half of its games.

Freshman Wylan Moss, who didn’t start a Tuesday contest for the first time all season this week, will get the ball for his first weekend start Friday. Junior right-hander Cody Delvecchio – who has previously started every Friday contest for the Bruins this season – is reportedly out indefinitely due to non-injury-related issues, D1Baseball’s Kendall Rodgers tweeted Thursday.

Moss has a 2.59 ERA and 1.72 FIP across 24.1 innings with 32 strikeouts to five walks but hasn’t pitched more than 4.1 frames in a single outing.

Delvecchio, on the other hand, had a 6.82 ERA and 1.45 WHIP across seven starts but was coming off his first win of the season against Purdue on Friday.

Last weekend, 11 Bruin pitchers appeared over the three-game series in West Lafayette, Indiana – with five appearing multiple times. Freshman right-hander CJ Bott said the bullpen is prepared to step in whenever necessary.

“We’re all getting ready, getting back from Purdue,” Bott said Tuesday. “A lot of us threw today, so we’re staying ready.”

The Toreros, who finished first in the West Coast Conference’s preseason coaches’ poll, are led offensively by Jack Gurevitch – a graduate of Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, California. The third baseman is slashing .402/.500/.673 for the second-best OPS in the conference.

On the mound, San Diego boasts right-hander Logan Reddemann – the 2024 WCC Freshman of the Year who leads the conference with a 1.72 ERA – and left-hander/center fielder Austin Smith, a preseason D1Baseball All-American in 2025 with a 6.99 ERA over 28.1 innings pitched and a .887 OPS across 113 at-bats.

But while the Toreros will give the Bruins a break from their conference adversaries, redshirt freshman outfielder Aidan Espinoza – who went 1-for-4 with two RBIs in his first collegiate start Tuesday – said the Bruins’ mindset is not changing.

“Just another day. Approach it like any other game,” Espinoza said.

Roch-in’ fancy shoes?

Sophomore shortstop Roch Cholowsky was named to USA Baseball’s 45-player midseason Golden Spikes Award watchlist Thursday.

The award, honoring the nation’s top amateur player in a given year, has only been won by a Bruin once – in 2011 by 2020 NL Cy Young Award winner Trevor Bauer after he posted a 1.25 ERA, broke the Pac-10’s single-season strikeout record with 203 punchouts and finished the season with nine consecutive complete games before being selected third overall in the 2011 MLB Draft – two selections after fellow Bruin right-hander Gerrit Cole.

After a second-team Freshman All-American campaign in 2024, Cholowky has seemingly upped his game in every facet – slashing .350/.518/.710 with a .977 fielding percentage this year compared to .308/.399/.500 and a .921 mark last year.

Among qualified hitters, the shortstop’s 1.228 OPS ranks sixth in the Big Ten, while his 169 wRC+ is fourth.

San Diego’s Smith also made the midseason list.

In other midseason news, D1Baseball projected UCLA to host an NCAA regional Wednesday, while Baseball America has the team heading to UC Irvine. The Bruins have not made the end-of-season tournament since 2022 or hosted since 2019 – when they were the No. 1 national seed.