No. 2 seed UCLA baseball (39-15, 22-8 Big Ten) missed out on the conference playoffs last season but will enter its first-ever Big Ten tournament as co-conference regular season champions, with No. 1 seed Oregon (41-13, 22-8) taking the top spot. The Bruins’ postseason run begins Wednesday at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Nebraska, where UCLA will duel No. 11 seed Illinois (29-23, 14-16) on Wednesday and No. 7 seed Michigan (33-21, 16-14) on Thursday in pool play. If the Bruins win both games – or if they, the Fighting Illini and Wolverines all go 1-1 – UCLA will advance to Saturday’s conference semifinal with a chance to qualify for Sunday’s title match. Daily Bruin Sports’ baseball beat predicts where UCLA will end its first trip to Charles Schwab Field since winning the 2013 College World Series.

Kai Dizon
Assistant Sports editor
Prediction: Big Ten champions

It’s hard to win with just one player in baseball.

Some of the sport’s greatest players never won a World Series: Barry Bonds, Ted Willliams and Ken Griffey Jr. all made it to Cooperstown, New York without raising a Commissioner’s Trophy.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t try.

And the Bruins boast the nation’s best player in 2025 – Roch Cholowsky.

The sophomore shortstop leads all qualified Power Four position players with a 180 wRC+, while his 1.274 OPS leads the Big Ten, and his 5.85 WAR was the most by a single player in the country, according to 643 Charts.

Slashing .371/.511/.762 with 20 home runs, 63 RBIs and a 1.62 walk-to-strikeout ratio, the Golden Spikes Award semifinalist is easily the best and most complete position player to grace Jackie Robinson Stadium since coach John Savage joined the program in 2004.

The shortstop told the Bruin Insider Show that a trip to Charles Schwab Field cemented his commitment to UCLA and a collegiate baseball career, instead of going straight from high school to the MLB Draft. The Los Angeles Times reported that Cholowsky has “Omaha” spelled out on his dorm room vision board.

Though he’s chasing the College World Series, an early introduction to college baseball’s biggest stage via the Big Ten tournament would hardly be an unwelcome experience.

Just don’t be surprised when jersey No. 1 is all over the Bruins’ next four wins in the Cornhusker State.

Noah Massey
Daily Bruin staff
Prediction: Big Ten semifinalists

UCLA’s postseason success will depend on its starting pitching.

Among the Big Ten’s 39 qualified pitchers, the Bruins’ three most frequent starts rank 13th, 20th and 29th in ERA.

While right-handers junior Michael Barnett and sophomore Landon Stump recorded a 1.50 ERA across 24 innings in their most recent starts against Illinois and Northwestern, both hurlers have struggled against the conference’s premier opponents.

When pitching against fellow top Big Ten squads No. 4 seed USC and No. 1 seed Oregon, Stump, Barnett and redshirt junior left-hander Ian May all posted ERAs above seven.

While the Bruins won’t get the opportunity to play the Trojans or Ducks unless they make the final, they could take on No. 3 seed Iowa in the semifinal.

Iowa was just swept by Oregon in three games at home, but the Hawkeyes also sport the lowest team ERA in Big Ten conference games and have three starting pitchers with top-10 conference ERAs.

The Hawkeyes’ pitching depth could prove to be the difference if they meet the Bruins in the semifinals – where both squads would be in their third game in four days.

Mika McCaffrey
Daily Bruin reporter
Prediction: Big Ten champions

The Bruins’ well-rounded roster will carry them to a Big Ten title.

Despite tying Oregon for a share of the conference championship Saturday, UCLA baseball’s 2-1 series loss to the Ducks earlier this season cemented it as the No. 2 seed.

While it’d be easy to assume UCLA would fall short to Oregon yet again, a closer look at the Bruins’ regular season suggests otherwise.

UCLA will play Illinois and Michigan in pool play. The Bruins swept the Fighting Illini in their penultimate series of the regular season and run-ruled Michigan 22-5, March 4. The Bruins should swiftly advance to Saturday’s semifinals. From there, both Oregon and UCLA should advance to Sunday’s title game, given that each team’s RPI is more than 25 spots above any other Big Ten member.

In the championship matchup, the Bruins just need to best the Ducks in a single game – as they did April 19 by a score of 14-4 after falling 2-1 the day prior. The one-run loss paired with a double-digit victory suggests the Bruins are every bit as good to upset the Ducks in a one-game playoff.

In its decisive win, every UCLA batter but one got a hit. And the one batter was sophomore second baseman Phoenix Call, who has been hot as of late, with clutch at-bats in the team’s past two weekend series. The Bruin bats have the momentum necessary to run the table in Omaha.

On the other side of the ball, the Bruins’ pitching staff held the Ducks to five runs across their first two games. Even after giving up 10 runs in the regular-season rubber match, UCLA still outscored Oregon 21-16 across the weekend.

The Bruins, with their explosive offense and deep bullpen, will be the lone team to hoist a Big Ten champion trophy in Omaha.

Gabriela Garcia
Daily Bruin contributor
Prediction: Big Ten champions

The Bruins’ offense carried them through the regular season and will bring them a Big Ten title.

UCLA has a plus-175 run differential in 2025 and scored its most runs in a single game March 4 in a 22-5 run-rule victory over Michigan. In a May sweep of Illinois, the Bruins outscored the Fighting Illini 27-14. UCLA will face both of these teams in pool play and should advance to Saturday’s semifinals.

UCLA baseball could meet with Iowa in the one-game semifinal. While the Bruins have yet to meet the Hawkeyes in 2025, the Ducks swept them to close out their regular season and snatch the tournament’s No. 1 seed.

The Bruins have five everyday players hitting north of .300 and four players among the Big Ten’s top 30 RBI leaders, with sophomore first baseman Mulivai Levu’s 71 ranked second and sophomore shortstop Roch Cholowsky’s 63 fourth. The Hawkeyes’ closest player sits 33rd in the conference.

The Bruins should advance to Sunday’s championship, where they’re likely to face the Ducks. While some would say Oregon beat UCLA in the regular season series 2-1, the Bruins put up 14 runs in their sole win over the Ducks.

And one win is all they’ll need if they make it to Sunday.

Jack Clarke
Daily Bruin contributor
Prediction: Big Ten runner-ups

When the Bruins touch down in Nebraska for their first Big Ten tournament, they’ll arrive as the conference’s second seed.

And despite carrying a .733 winning percentage in Big Ten games, I believe UCLA will leave Omaha as the tournament’s runner up.

Tied with Oregon for the best mark in the Big Ten, UCLA finished 22-8 in conference play, earning a share of the conference’s regular season title. Placed in Pool B alongside Michigan and Illinois, UCLA will face two teams it defeated in each of their meetings in 2025.

While advancing from pool play seems highly probable, UCLA might encounter trouble in the one-game semifinal, where it would meet the winner of Pool C, a group that features No. 6 seed Indiana alongside two teams the Bruins have not faced this year in No. 3 seed Iowa and No. 10 seed Rutgers.

If the Bruins are able to defeat the Hoosiers for the third time this year – or overcome the unfamiliar Hawkeyes or Scarlet Knights – and advance to Sunday, UCLA will probably draw a tough matchup in the championship game. The most likely opponent for the conference tournament crown is fellow Big Ten newcomer Oregon, the tournament’s top seed and a team that ended UCLA’s streak of nine consecutive weekend series wins.

Alongside the Ducks, crosstown rivals the Trojans, who handed the Bruins their only other conference series loss, is another possible title-game matchup that could spoil UCLA’s pursuit of its first conference tournament championship.

Remaining in the Big Ten tournament will rely on UCLA’s pitching staff’s ability to navigate traffic and the offense’s aptitude to put up runs early. With even a single loss throwing UCLA’s title odds out the window, the Bruins will benefit immensely from scoring first – a feat that they only accomplished in 38.8% of their games.

While UCLA could certainly return to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2022 with the Big Ten’s automatic bid come Sunday, the difficulty of the Bruins’ prospective matchups in the tournament’s later stages complicates their chances of a tournament victory.