Virginia Tech sat just three outs away from knocking off top-seeded UCLA in its elimination game in the Los Angeles Regional Saturday afternoon. What followed was a three-run ninth inning from the Bruins that ended the Hokies' season.
The final score — UCLA 6, Virginia Tech 5 — does no justice to just how close the Hokies came to pulling off what would have been one of the most stunning upsets in NCAA tournament history. For eight innings, Virginia Tech outworked, outfought, and at times outplayed the nation's top-ranked program at its home ballpark. Then, over the course of 29 pitches, the season was over.
Mulivai Levu and Roman Martin led off the bottom of the ninth with back-to-back solo home runs off reliever Madden Clement, erasing a 5-3 Virginia Tech lead. Phoenix Call then delivered a walk-off RBI single through a five-man infield, and just like that, the Hokies were done.
To understand how crushing the ending was, you have to appreciate how hard Virginia Tech worked to get there. This wasn't a team that grabbed a lead and coasted. The Hokies were punched then answered again and again for nearly three hours in front of a Bruins’ home crowd at Jackie Robinson Stadium.
Virginia Tech drew first blood in the third inning. A full-count walk to Owen Petrich set the table, and Pete Daniel moved him along with a groundout to the right side. Sam Grube then ripped a go-ahead single up the middle, just over the outstretched glove of Bruin shortstop Roch Cholowsky, scoring Petrich and giving Virginia Tech a 1-0 lead.
The lead lasted until the fourth. UCLA catcher Cashel Dugger crushed a first-pitch solo shot to right field to tie it, and the Bruins added another run on back-to-back doubles from Phoenix Call and Jarrod Hocking to take a 2-1 advantage. Starter Brett Renfrow had been working through traffic all afternoon; he'd thrown 34 pitches in the first inning alone, and the lead changed hands for the first time.
In the fifth, nine-hole hitter Owen Petrich hammered a pitch to left field and sent it well over the wall, knotting the game at two apiece.
The Bruins grabbed the lead right back in the fifth when reliever Preston Crowl surrendered a solo homer to Will Gasparino, UCLA's second of the game, to make it 3-2. For a lesser team, that might have been demoralizing. Virginia Tech was facing the best program in the country, on the road, in an elimination game. Surrendering momentum at that moment could have been fatal.
Instead, Ethan Gibson stepped to the plate in the seventh inning and sent a leadoff solo shot over the wall, tying the game yet again at 3-3. It was the Hokies' third home run of the afternoon, and the fourth of the game. Virginia Tech had answered every UCLA punch with one of their own.
Griffin Stieg — one of the team's weekend starters — came on in relief and put up a shutdown inning to keep the game level heading into the eighth. It was Stieg's first relief appearance since May 3, 2023, his freshman year. He was sharp, and he handed the game back to his offense with a tie score and three outs to work with.
With two outs and the game tied at three, Ethan Ball skied the first pitch he saw deep over the right field wall for a solo home run that put Virginia Tech on top, 4-3, with just six outs left to get. The upset was within reach. The Hokies had the lead, had the momentum, and had just silenced one of the louder crowds in college baseball.
Stieg and Clement combined to put down UCLA in order in the bottom of the eighth, keeping the Hokies' two-out advantage intact heading into the ninth.
In the top of the ninth against Easton Hawk, one of the premier relief arms in the country, Ethan Gibson hammered an 0-1 pitch to right field for a leadoff double. Hudson Lutterman followed by working into a hitter's count, sat on a fastball and got it, pushing an RBI single to right field that scored Gibson and gave the Hokies a 5-3 lead heading into the bottom of the ninth.
At that point, Virginia Tech needed exactly three outs to knock out the top national seed on their home field — something that had never been done in this era of the NCAA tournament. Madden Clement took the mound to close it out.
Levu led off the bottom of the ninth and sent the ball over the wall. Then Martin stepped in and did the same thing on the very next pitch.
Ethan Grim came on in relief with the score tied. Gasparino reached on an infield single. Dominic Cadiz came off the bench and knocked a pinch-hit single, putting runners on the corners with one out. Call, who had already doubled earlier in the game, worked the count to 2-2 before lining a pitch into left field to score Gasparino, and just like that, it was over.
Virginia Tech finishes 30-26, the first team eliminated in the Los Angeles Regional after also falling to Cal Poly 6-2 on Friday. It was the program's first regional appearance since 2022, and they left L.A. with little to show for it.
