Coach John Savage said March 3 he didn’t think any team in the country would win over 50 games.

No. 1 seed UCLA baseball is at 51.

If the Bruins wish to hoist a national title at season’s end, they’ll need to end the year with 61.

UCLA won every weekend series during the regular season, and now, a successful season may very well require the Bruins to go all year without losing a weekend.

In the NCAA Los Angeles Regional, beginning Friday, anything except winning three straight games or three of four across the weekend will mean the first-ever wire-to-wire regular-season No. 1 team in the country’s season will be over.

“You can’t count out a regional,” redshirt junior right fielder Payton Brennan said. “We’re just focused on a regional, and after that, we’ll see what happens. … It’s a different spot than last year, just based on how we were looked at, and it could be harder this year.”

At this point, it may be easy to believe the No. 1 team has seen the last of its No. 1 starter.

Junior right-hander Logan Reddemann missed his April 24 start for rest, Savage said at the time. The following week, the coach said his ace was dealing with arm fatigue.

On May 8, Savage said Reddemann would hopefully be ready for the Big Ten Tournament.

The California Post reported Reddemann would possibly pitch out of the bullpen in the conference tournament May 20.

And two days later, College Baseball Central said Savage was hopeful Reddemann would be ready come NCAA Regionals.

Thursday, Savage said Reddemann still looks about a week away.

“He’s got one more bullpen in (and) a live session,” Savage said. “If we can get there to the super regional, (he might be ready), but he will not be available this weekend.”

Junior utility Phoenix Call will make his second start of the season in center field Friday, with junior center fielder Will Gasparino having been ejected in the Big Ten Tournament finale Sunday.

Call’s first start manning center came April 7, also a product of a Gasparino ejection the game prior, with Call recording an error on five chances.

Regardless, Savage remains confident in the 2023 MLB Draft 15th-round pick – even with Brennan, who was the everyday center fielder in 2025, available.

“Call, again, is an elite center fielder,” Savage said. “You guys will see that you can go get the ball with anybody, and Payton can clearly play center as well. Clearly we know that, but Payton has really taken over the right field position this season to a high degree.”

However, Call is hitting .118 over his last 15 starts – totaling 51 at-bats – and is slashing .198/.386/.302 on the year, while the Bruin offense looked stagnant at times in the conference tournament, relying on three straight walk-offs.

Bruin backstop junior Cashel Dugger’s batting average over his last 15 contests sits at .200, after he went hitless in Omaha last weekend.

Only the catcher’s slugging percentage has improved between 2025 and 2026, with slash lines of .279/.421/.360 and .258/.388/.376, respectively.

“We really focus on winning the seventh, eighth and ninth innings, and those are the innings that we come back,” Dugger said. “This team is resilient, and (we’re) never out of the ball game.”

If some slumping Bruin bats aren’t able to break the spell, however, the team’s playoff run may come down to an aceless pitching staff stepping up.

Despite the flurry of high-leverage innings that came during the Bruins’ three straight walk-off victories in the Big Ten Tournament – which required 88 total pitches from sophomore closer Easton Hawk across back-to-back-to-back outings – junior right-hander Cal Randall tossed just a single frame.

After tossing an inning against Purdue on Friday, Randall was unavailable the rest of the conference tournament because of an injured oblique but is healthy for the Los Angeles Regional, Savage said.

The setup man is at a career-high 28 innings pitched on the season and has seen his K/9 jump from 10.59 as a sophomore to 16.39 as a junior.

Freshman right-hander Angel Cervantes, who opened every midweek game this year, was limited to around 40 to 50 pitches per start during the regular season, Savage said. But the coach added that he feels the No. 50 pick in the 2025 MLB Draft is ready to take on the heavier workload that comes with being a starter in the NCAA Tournament.

The freshman’s last start against Oregon in the conference tournament final set a career high with five strikeouts, matched a career-high with five innings pitched and was his first outing getting through five frames without allowing a run.

Savage added that the Bruins need Michael Barnett to get back into form. The senior right-hander, who headlined UCLA’s pitching staff a year ago – starting the Bruins’ first Regional, Super Regional and Men’s College World Series games – has averaged fewer than 4.1 innings per start over his last eight outings, in which he has a 5.35 ERA.

Barnett, who allowed three runs over 4.2 frames against USC on May 23, is slated to remain in the Saturday role come regionals, Savage said.

“We’ll see what happens,” Brennan said. “Staying with us and not trying to do too much, and just stay present – that’s the main thing, and stay with each other.”