What’s next for UCLA baseball after season-ending shocker? Lots of roster rebuilding

As Saint Mary’s players celebrated the greatest baseball upset in school history, sprinting into the outfield to mob one another inside a stunned Jackie Robinson Stadium, UCLA fans turned toward the aisle to depart.

It was time to bid farewell to a surreal season in which the Bruins experienced some of the greatest highs and most deflating lows in program history.

Opening the season as the nation’s top-ranked team, UCLA held that designation all the way through the end of May. Amid slumps and injuries, the Bruins persevered to win every series as well as the Big Ten Conference’s regular-season and tournament championships.

Then came a lost weekend in which UCLA was outclassed by a team out of the West Coast Conference.

After dropping two games to the fourth-seeded Gaels — who didn’t make it out of the Regional themselves after losing to Cal Poly — the Bruins (52-8) became only the fifth top overall seed in the current NCAA Tournament format to lose in a Regional.

“At the end of the day,” UCLA coach John Savage said Sunday after the final defeat, “we didn’t play up to our standards and didn’t get it done. That’s where we’re at.”

What should make those fans who departed in a haze want to come back in 2027?

As Savage likes to say, good question.

UCLA will lose shortstop Roch Cholowsky, whose season-ending hitting slump could give Major League Baseball executives pause about making him the No. 1 overall pick in the draft, as well as ace Logan Reddemann, who missed the season’s final six weeks because of arm fatigue.

In fact, the Bruins might need to replace their entire lineup with the exception of freshman second baseman Aiden Aguayo, freshman outfielder Trey Gudoy, freshman infielder Dominic Cadiz and any of the juniors who decide to forgo the draft to return for another college season.

Things are not as bleak on the pitching side.

Freshman Angel Cervantes and sophomore Wylan Moss will certainly contend for the coveted role of Friday night starter after each showed significant promise last season.

Cervantes was on track to be the winning pitcher Sunday when he departed after 5⅓ innings with the Bruins holding a 5-3 lead. It was his second consecutive impressive start, after he had pitched five scoreless innings against Oregon in the Big Ten Tournament championship.

“I thought Angel really grew up,” Savage said of a right-hander who went 4-1 with a 4.17 earned-run average while pitching with a miniature toy dinosaur named Jerry on the back of the mound. “He turned a corner.”

Moss, who pitched five quality innings in the Regional opener against Saint Mary’s, went 5-1 with a 2.49 ERA as a part-time starter.

The Bruins will also return sophomore closer Easton Hawk, who notched 14 saves and was dominant until a series of rough outings to end the season — including two losses in the Regional.

The pitching staff will be bolstered by the arrival of two transfers in right-handers Fabio Bundi (Monterey Peninsula College) and Colin Huston (Folsom Lake College). They are part of a 10-player incoming class that also includes St. John Bosco High outfielder Jaden Jackson, who played for the gold medal-winning USA Baseball 18-under National Team.

Savage could add additional transfers, though he typically builds primarily through the high school ranks – his 2026 roster included only five transfers.

After notching 30 comeback wins, a bigger challenge lies ahead.

Giving the fans who packed Jackie Robinson Stadium a reason to come back.