Beyond the absurdity of playing the Big Ten Tournament in the rainy Midwest when perfect Southern California weather was available, the top-ranked UCLA baseball team had to contend with something far more menacing Friday.
A gritty bunch of Purdue Boilermakers.
Falling behind early after a couple of blunders and trailing deep into the eighth inning, the Bruins eventually summoned some magic, as if those rainbows in the sky before the first pitch had finally unveiled their treasure.
After tying the score with two runs in the eighth inning and loading the bases with one out in the ninth, Mulivai Levu’s run-scoring sacrifice fly completed UCLA’s 4-3 comeback in a dramatic quarterfinal victory at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Neb.
The Bruins surged out of their dugout to mob Levu, who had also sparked their rally an inning earlier.
“We’re gritty and we’re all well-connected and we just don’t give up,” Levu told the Big Ten Network after helping his team improve to 8-4 when trailing after seven innings.
UCLA (49-6) benefited from a fielding error and a throwing error that put two runners on to start the ninth inning. Leadoff hitter Dean West then sacrificed both runners into scoring position, prompting Purdue (37-20) to intentionally walk Roch Cholowsky to load the bases.
Levu then lifted a 2-and-1 pitch into right field, easily scoring pinch-runner Jarrod Hocking from third base with the winning run.
“We were fortunate,” UCLA coach John Savage said, “and Vai did a good job and got the ball elevated and hit it to the outfield.”
What it means
The comeback avoided a terrible, embarrassing loss that would have sucked a lot of the momentum out of UCLA going wire to wire in the regular season as the nation’s top-ranked team.
It also set up a rivalry showdown with USC in a semifinal. The Bruins swept the three-game series between the teams when they met in April at Jackie Robinson Stadium.
Turning point
With two out in the eighth, UCLA had nobody on base and trailed by two runs.
Levu then ripped a single through the right side of the infield before Dean Martin crushed a ball off the yellow strip atop the wall in left-center field.
Martin initially thought he had a run-scoring triple — and then a home run — before being sent back to third base.
Payton Brennan followed with a run-scoring single to center to tie the score, setting the stage for the ninth-inning magic.
Did you see that?
Purdue’s Brandon Rogers put on a football helmet in the dugout — a celebratory tradition for his team — after depositing a homer into UCLA’s bullpen beyond the left-field wall in the seventh inning.
MVP: Mulivai Levu
Levu went 2 for 3 with a walk in addition to driving in the winning run.
What was his approach when he stepped to the plate in the bottom of the ninth?
“Just go up there, calm my heart rate and just try to do a job,” Levu told the Big Ten Network. “Wasn’t trying to do too much, just trying to put the ball in play for the man on third to score.”
Up next
The Bruins will face crosstown rival USC in a semifinal at noon Pacific Saturday.
