No matter one’s allegiance, both fan bases could surely agree on one thing.
More of this, please — particularly next month on the same field.
In the continued revival of a crosstown college baseball rivalry, UCLA and USC packed a week’s worth of drama into one game inside the stadium that will host the College World Series.
The Trojans built a big early lead Saturday during the teams’ Big Ten Tournament semifinal at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha.
The Bruins erased it.
Then, facing a closer who hadn’t given up a run since early March, USC broke through to take the lead.
Ultimately, UCLA possessed the final counter.
Mulivai Levu’s three-run walk-off homer with two out in the ninth inning vaulted the top-ranked Bruins to a crazy 7-5 victory, giving him his second magical moment in as many days.
“We just don’t give up,” Levu, who hit a walk-off sacrifice fly against Purdue on Friday, told the Big Ten Network. “We’re never out of it, we’re never doubting ourselves.”
UCLA’s 27th comeback win of the season nudged it into the championship game Sunday against either second-seeded Nebraska or third-seeded Oregon.
Only a few minutes earlier, USC was on the verge of taking one of those spots.
The Trojans struck for two runs off UCLA closer Easton Hawk in the top of the ninth, ending his 25-inning scoreless streak.
Predictably, there was more tension to come.
UCLA’s Aidan Espinoza led off the bottom of the ninth with an infield single off USC closer Adam Troy. Leadoff hitter Dean West — whose mammoth two-run blast had given the Bruins a 4-3 lead two innings earlier — worked a one-out walk to bring up Roch Cholowsky, the presumed top pick in next month’s Major League Baseball draft.
Troy won the battle, getting Cholowsky to pop up to first baseman Adrian Lopez in foul territory.
That brought up Levu, who got the fastball he wanted on the first pitch. He sent it sailing over the wall in right-center field, thrusting one arm into the air and then the other before commencing his home-run trot.
He said his approach was similar to the one he used Friday in his final at-bat.
“Just like yesterday, tried to calm my heart rate down,” Levu told the Big Ten Network. “Just tried to get my breath and hunt like for a fastball and luckily got one over the plate.”
While it was the fourth win in as many tries for UCLA (50-8) over its biggest rival, both teams are headed to the NCAA Tournament. The Bruins will surely host a Regional and the Trojans (43-15) may as well given their continued resurgence under coach Andy Stankiewicz.
The most important takeaway from their latest battle is that college baseball is back in a big way in L.A.
The previous three meetings between these teams had brought overflow crowds to UCLA’s Jackie Robinson Stadium to see a rivalry revving into overdrive.
Once a national power that’s won a record 12 College World Series titles, USC appears to have fully emerged from a two-decade lull that started with the departure of coach Mike Gillespie after the 2006 season.
Combining superb pitching and defense with timely hitting, the Trojans might have enough talent to reach their first College World Series since 2001.
Among those thrilled about USC’s resurgence is its rival coach.
“I think it’s great for West Coast recruiting, knowing that you can go and play at two legitimate programs within the city of Los Angeles and have a chance to get to Omaha,” UCLA coach John Savage, who guided the Bruins to the 2013 College World Series title, told the California Post earlier this week.
While Big Ten scheduling rules have confined the rivals to playing just one series against one another during the regular season, Savage said he would be open to playing additional games against the Trojans given the intense interest when the Bruins swept the series in early April.
“I think it would probably have to be out of league, the other series,” Savage told the Post. “But I think it’s something to talk about, just for the sake of how good the programs are and what the community would want to see.
“You know, the games here at UCLA were as crowded as it could be at Jackie – there was just a lot of excitement, a lot of familiarity and there were a lot of guys who have grown up with one another, played against one another, so it’s pretty cool when you have two legitimate programs within a few miles of one another.”
Those teams might not have met for the last time this season.
“They’re a good team,” Levu said, “and eventually we’ll probably see them later on in the playoff run.”
Perhaps even on the same field.
