No. 15 seed UCLA baseball (48-18, 22-8 Big Ten) lost a weather-induced double header to No. 6 seed LSU 9-5 and No. 3 seed Arkansas 7-3 Tuesday in the Men’s College World Series, ending the Bruins’ season. Daily Bruin Sports senior staffer Kai Dizon gives five explanations of what went wrong for UCLA in Omaha, Nebraska.

Star struck

Many say hitting a baseball is the hardest thing to do in sports.

But for so much of 2025, Roch Cholowsky made it look easy.

Ahead of the NCAA tournament, the sophomore shortstop slashed .369/.507/.783 with 23 home runs – a program record in the BBCOR era – with a 183 wRC+, which led Power Four hitters.

But in the NCAA tournament, Cholowsky hit .257 across 35 at-bats with one walk, two strikeouts, five RBIs and no extra base hits.

Cholowsky’s struggles at the plate worsened during the MCWS, going 1-for-12.

It was a strange slump in some ways. Cholowsky’s strikeouts didn’t balloon; he continued to play elite defense – making just one error in eight national tournament games and taking home the 2025 Rawlings Division I Gold Glove Award for shortstop on Wednesday – and remained a leader on the field, frequently initiating mound visits and speaking highly of his teammates to the press.

Still, UCLA more or less needed Cholowsky’s bat if it was going to beat No. 3 seed Arkansas or No. 6 seed LSU. Instead, it was like the team was playing with an arm behind its back – with the Bruins seemingly left waiting for their star to break out – leaving the shortstop batting second in the lineup despite his slump.

As Cholowsky often said when he was in a groove at the plate, baseball games are never won by a single player.

Likewise, they aren’t lost by one athlete either.

And though Cholowsky said he’s just excited for the chance to make it back to Omaha next year – as he’s ineligible for the MLB Draft until 2026 – if the Bruins don’t make it, I can’t help but wonder what could’ve been in 2025.

Gone flat

Again, it wasn’t all on Cholowsky.

The Bruins hit 78 home runs this year, but zero in the MCWS.

Sure, it worked in 2013 – when UCLA became the first team since 1966 to win the MCWS without hitting a home run.

But the Bruins’ pitching wasn’t as dominant as it was in 2013, and college baseball isn’t in a dead-ball era like it was then.

UCLA only hit 19 home runs all year in 2013, but the staff had a 2.55 ERA.

The Bruins relied on the long ball for big innings all year: sophomore first baseman Mulivai Levu launched an extra-innings grand slam against Maryland in the team’s first-ever Big Ten contest, sophomore third baseman Roman Martin’s three-run homer against Fresno State and grand slam against Arizona State helped UCLA in the Los Angeles Regional and Cholowsky had countless big-time long balls throughout the regular season and Big Ten tournament.

Yet, the Bruins had just four extra base hits across three MCWS games – three doubles and a triple.

And the Bruins staff surrendered six extra base hits – with first baseman Jared Jones’ three-run shot and shortstop Wehiwa Aloy’s two-run blast giving LSU and Arkansas the lead for good in their respective games against UCLA.

A timely bases-clearing blast from the Bruins could’ve made things interesting – or even landed themselves an upset.

Designated what?

UCLA cycled through three players as designated hitters in Omaha – sophomore Blake Balsz, junior Toussaint Bythewood and redshirt freshman Aidan Espinoza.

Together, they went 1-for-12 with five strikeouts, no walks and left eight on base.

Balsz finished the season slashing .239/.415/.291 in 179 plate appearances. But over his final 85, he slashed just .176/.306/.206 and struck out nearly a quarter of the time. Still, the Bruins often had their backup catcher slotted in as the designated hitter.

But in an elimination game against Arkansas, UCLA opted for the right-handed hitting Bythewood over the left-handed hitting Balsz with a southpaw on the bump. But it was just Bythewood’s fourth start of the year, and he went 0-for-2 with two strikeouts before Espinoza pinch hit.

Espinoza also went 0-for-2 but went 6-for-21 with three walks in 25 plate appearances this season, and could’ve improved with more consistent playing time – the same goes for Bythewood.

Instead, the Bruins searched for a productive designated hitter in sophomore Cameron Kim, junior Jarrod Hocking and freshman Logan de Groot – all of whom finished with an OPS below .700 – and with Kim already announcing his commitment to Cal State Fullerton for 2026 after becoming academically ineligible ahead of spring quarter.

UCLA struggled to find consistency from its designated hitters, and the decision to hand some of the biggest plate appearances of the season to batters with well under 100 collegiate at-bats is a questionable gametime decision at best. And at worst, it’s a display of poor player development.

A deck without an ace

Junior right-hander Michael Barnett only made it through 4.2 innings Saturday against Murray State before leg cramps forced UCLA to turn to the bullpen.

Sophomore right-hander Landon Stump gave up five runs in his two-plus innings of work Monday night against LSU – immediately forfeiting UCLA’s 3-0 lead.

And junior right-hander Cody Delvecchio was pulled after allowing back-to-back hits to begin the fifth and was charged with three earned runs on a night the Bruins would only muster three.

No quality starts – not even a start that left the pitcher in line for a win – not even close.

UCLA starters had a 7.59 ERA across just 10.2 innings pitched in Omaha – leaving 14.1 innings in the hands of an overworked bullpen that was often tasked with keeping the Bruins in games where a deficit had already ballooned.

Meanwhile, southpaw Kade Anderson threw seven innings of one-run ball to help LSU defeat Arkansas in its first 2025 MCWS game, Arkansas right-hander Gage Wood threw a no-hitter to keep his team’s season alive, freshman right-hander Dax Whitney struck out nine in 5.1 one-run innings to push Oregon State over Louisville and right-hander Jacob Morrison tossed 7.2 innings of one-run ball to cement Coastal Carolina’s 26th straight win and a spot in the MCWS final against LSU.

Solid starting pitching isn’t just helpful in Omaha, it’s necessary.

It’s what led UCLA to its one and only national title, when its roster was led by Adam Plutko and Nick Vander Tuig, with David Berg rounding out the bullpen.

Instead, Savage’s pitching staff became so thin in 2025 that the coach elected to have three different pitchers throw on just a few hours rest in the LSU game, which ended Tuesday afternoon, and the Arkansas game, which began Tuesday evening.

It just means more

UCLA went 7-9 against Quad 1 opponents, 12-2 against Quad 2, 20-5 Quad 3 and 9-2 against Quad 4.

And the two teams that eliminated the Bruins – the Tigers and Razorbacks – went 18-11 and 18-12 in Quad 1 affairs.

So not only does it seem like the Bruins struggled against better competition, they also didn’t face it as often.

And UCLA struggled when it played the top programs in the country.

In the regular season, it lost to then-No. 14 Vanderbilt 8-3 – and in the span of a week – lost to then-No. 6 Oregon State, then-No. 12 UC Irvine and dropped two of three to then-No. 16 Oregon.

Who knows what would’ve happened if the Bruins didn’t host their regional and super regional – or if in the regional final, UCLA didn’t get to play UC Irvine after it already played Arizona State earlier in the day.

How would UCLA have fared against Texas, the SEC regular season champions, in an Austin super regional?

Maybe the Bruins weren’t as good as their 48-win season may have suggested.

Maybe the gap between the SEC and everybody else is becoming too large to overcome – if it hadn’t already.

Still, the experiences of 2025 only support rising expectations heading into 2026.