UCLA Baseball, Softball Stand Alone Among College World Series Programs

Bruins softball made it to Oklahoma and lost to the Tennessee Lady Volunteers in one of college softball's most controversial games of the year. Junior Megan Grant stepped over home plate after tying the game with a two-run home run in the bottom of the seventh inning.

A 20-minute review ensued showing that Grant indeed stepped over and missed home plate, but NCAA officials deemed the play unreviewable. The Lady Vols ended up walking it off and ending the Bruins' season in extra innings.

UCLA baseball advanced to Omaha after cruising its way through both the regional and super regional rounds, winning all five games, including the two against UTSA in the Los Angeles Super Regional.

Coach John Savage and his Bruins squad are making the program's first College World Series appearance since 2013, when they won their first and only CWS title.

Savage and UCLA star shortstop Roch Cholowsky spoke on the win against UTSA and what it means to make it back to the World Series.

"Again, I think it was a team effort, a lot of guys being on the same page," Savage said. "That's what we've been throughout the season. We've taken some lumps along the way, but for the most part, they've stayed together through thick and thin. To their credit, they believe in one another. We had outstanding pitching this weekend. We had a bunch of naysayers questioning our pitching, and you can't question that now. At the end of the day, we had a lot of really good at-bats.

"Our defense was championship-level, clearly. On to the next tournament. I think this team doesn't feel like this is the end of the journey. It wasn't our goal to just get to Omaha. We've talked a lot about going and playing well, taking our game to whoever we play. I'm really excited for the guys, excited for the alumni, the fans. I'm excited for everyone involved. At the end of the day, it's an appreciation on my behalf towards a lot of people." 

Cholowsky added, "This is surreal to me. It's just something that I've dreamed of as long as I could remember. Getting to go experience [the CWS] a couple years ago just added that much more fire to the dream.

"I haven't wrapped my head around it. It's something that I'm never going to forget. But, I mean, we're not done yet. We're going there to play our game of baseball and just take it other teams, so I'm looking forward to that."