This post was updated Nov. 5 at 12:37 a.m.
The baseball world was focused on game seven of the 2025 World Series on Saturday – the sport’s biggest possible stage.
Well, maybe just 99.999% of the baseball world.
Right outside Westwood, UCLA baseball played a nine-inning and five-inning scrimmage against UC Irvine at Jackie Robinson Stadium in the Bruins’ only fall exhibition action. The Bruins bested the Anteaters 8-3 in game one’s nine-inning contest and 7-0 in game two’s abbreviated affair.
While the 2026 season is still over three months out, the Anteaters and the public got their first taste of the Men’s-College-World-Series-or-bust Bruins.
A trip to Omaha seemed impossible 18 months ago when UCLA finished the 2024 season 19-33. But after a 2025 squad with minimal expectations ended its season at Charles Schwab Field, it’d be a disappointment if the improved 2026 Bruins – possibly the best UCLA team ever on paper – don’t make a run at the program’s second-ever national title.
Junior right-hander Logan Reddemann took the mound to start game one, signaling a shift in the program under coach John Savage.
The 21-year Bruin coach has typically only recruited graduate students and non-Division I players through the portal. The lone exception to that theme last season was redshirt senior southpaw Ian May, who was limited to just 42 innings across his final two seasons with California because of injury.
Reddemann, however, posted a 2.29 ERA over 55 innings with San Diego in 2025 and is a two-time WCC First-Team honoree. His addition bolsters the starting rotation – what Savage tabbed the Bruins’ weakest link after UCLA was eliminated from Omaha in June.
Freshman right-hander Angel Cervantes also projects to help that effort. The Lynwood, California, local turned down the Pittsburgh Pirates, which drafted him 50th overall in July, for Westwood.
While freshmen may not typically be expected to enter the weekend rotation right off the bat, it wouldn’t be too unusual for Cervantes to make the jump at some point in 2026.
Junior right-hander Landon Stump made seven Sunday starts in his debut season amid a depleted staff, and sophomore right-hander Wylan Moss made three Friday starts under similar circumstances last season before injury limited his availability down the stretch.
Reddemann, Stump, Cervantes and Moss pitched an inning each to open Saturday’s first contest – striking out three while allowing just two baserunners over four combined innings.
To help on the coaching side, Josh Alger – who tossed 17 innings for the Bruins last season after injuries sidelined him for his first three collegiate campaigns – joins Savage’s staff as a graduate assistant, mainly working with pitchers in the bullpen Saturday.
Jake Palmer, who coincidentally played for both Irvine and UCLA before becoming a graduate manager with the latter in 2023, was promoted from his previous post as director of player development to assistant coach in September and coached third base for the Bruins on Saturday in the wake of former assistant coach Niko Gallego’s offseason departure.
Palmer also worked alongside assistant coach and recruiting coordinator Bryant Ward to help call out defensive adjustments.
However, the offense largely remains the same.
Juniors left fielder Dean West, shortstop Roch Cholowsky, first baseman Mulivai Levu and third baseman Roman Martin hit one through four in game one before the quartet – and most of the game one lineup – sat in game two.
Notably, West went 3-for-5 with a triple and Cholowsky – D1Baseball, MLB.com and Baseball America’s top 2026 MLB Draft prospect – finished the day 2-for-5 with three RBI and a triple of his own.
A new face – junior outfielder Will Gasparino – hit fifth, however.
Against Irvine, the Texas transfer manned center field – the position where he made the SEC All Defensive team last season – but struggled at the plate, going 0-for-4 with two strikeouts and a lone RBI on a bases-loaded walk.
Regardless, Gasparino’s 6-foot-6 frame, .851 OPS last season and profile out of high school – with Perfect Game naming him California’s No. 1 outfielder in 2023 – suggest he can contribute to the Bruins’ already potent offense.
All in, UCLA sent 14 pitchers – six of whom are new to the program – to pitch an inning apiece and 16 batters to the plate, with six being newcomers.
The staff held Irvine to three runs on four hits and seven walks while striking out 13. All three runs came against returning junior right-handers Cal Randall, who walked in a run, and Justin Lee, who surrendered a two-run homer.
The bats, meanwhile, scored 15 runs on 17 hits, four walks and two hit-by-pitches while striking out 11 times and leaving 10 on base.
Add in junior second baseman Phoenix Call and sophomore right-hander Easton Hawk – who both nursed minor injuries that sidelined them Saturday but aren’t expected to delay their 2026 campaigns, a UCLA Athletics spokesperson said – and the upcoming season looks destined to end in the Midwest.
A year ago, the Bruins weren’t allowed to use Jackie Robinson Stadium after a federal judge ruled the lease between the Department of Veterans Affairs and UCLA for the ballpark’s land illegal.
And Savage was headed into a contract year following the Bruins’ worst season since 2005.
Though a UCLA Athletics spokesperson declined to comment and Savage wasn’t made available to the media following play Saturday, the Bruins have their home field of over 44 years for the time being and their head coach signed an undisclosed three-year contract extension in July.
Suffice it to say, a lot can change in a year.
Anything can happen.
But by the looks of it, it’d hardly be surprising if the Bruins redo Jackie Robinson Stadium’s decor to make room for some new banners and wall decals come the end of June.
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