No. 1 overall seed UCLA eliminated in baseball regionals after Saint Mary's walks it off in extras

For the second straight year, the No. 1 overall seed has crashed out of the NCAA baseball regionals. UCLA’s season came to a close after a 6-5 loss to Saint Mary’s in extra innings.

The Gaels picked up the one-run win after sending the game to extras with a game-tying run in the bottom of the ninth. Then, Saint Mary’s stunned the Bruins in the 10th inning with Makoa Sniffen’s walk-off base hit that sent Cody Kashimoto home for the win. Both of those high-stakes RBIs came with two outs on the board.

It’s the second time in three days that UCLA has been upset by Saint Mary’s. The Gaels shocked the Bruins in the regionals’ opener on Friday. Jacob Johnson gave his team the lead with a solo homer in the top of the ninth, and Cam Staton closed it out on the mound to give Saint Mary’s a 3-2 win.

Prior to 2025, no No. 1 seed had ever failed to at least make the regional final, per ESPN. Now, UCLA joins Vanderbilt, which fell to Wright State last year, as the second straight No. 1 seed to stumble early.

Saint Mary’s will now face Cal Poly for a chance to stay alive, in a rematch of the Gaels’ 14-1 loss to the Mustangs on Saturday. Because this stage of the tournament is double elimination, Saint Mary’s will have to beat Cal Poly twice (once on Sunday and once on Monday) in order to advance.

UCLA, meanwhile, will be heading home. The Bruins’ early exit also marks another poor showing from the Big Ten, baseball-wise, leaving Oregon and USC as the only teams left in the conference — for now.