OMAHA, Neb. — College baseball’s top-ranked team added another chapter to its magical season on Friday night, as UCLA walked off Purdue, 4-3, in a Big Ten Tournament quarterfinal.
With the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth inning, first baseman Mulivai Levu delivered a clutch, game-winning sacrifice fly to give the top-seeded Bruins their first victory in postseason play, securing a spot in a semifinal against fourth-seeded rival USC on Saturday.
“[I was] just trying to keep it simple, ya know?” Levu said. “The atmosphere was pretty sick, but I was just trying to slow my heart rate down and do a job. I wasn’t trying to do too much, just try to put it in play for the man on third to score, and that’s about it.”
Levu’s heroics concluded a long day for the Bruins (49-6). Friday’s game was originally slated for a 1 p.m. local start time, but the threat of rainstorms pushed first pitch back to 7 p.m.
“I’m not going to lie, it was pissing me off the whole day,” Levu said. “I really wanted to play. I wanted to get out there. It’s great to be back here at Charles Schwab in Omaha. I just wanted to play, but it was a little annoying at some points.”
Coming out of a 6-hour weather delay and UCLA’s longest break of the season – the team hadn’t played since its regular-season finale last Saturday – it took nearly eight innings for UCLA’s offense to wake from its slumber. The Bruins had just two hits through the game’s first seven innings, five of which were tossed by relief pitcher Thomas Howard, making his first start of the season. Howard allowed just one run off two hits and one walk, striking out four Bruins, and throwing 83 pitches.
Trailing 3-1 in the bottom of the eighth with two outs, a base hit to right field from Levu sparked a late rally. The next batter, Roman Martin, rocketed a ball that appeared to clear the left-center field wall. Initially ruled a home run, the play was reviewed and ruled a triple, scoring Levu. Payton Brennan followed Martin’s three-bagger with a game-tying single.
The Bruins showed signs of rust in the game’s early innings, committing two errors, walking four batters and hitting one batsman before surging past the fifth-seeded Boilermakers (37-20).
“It was kind of a rollercoaster,” UCLA manager John Savage said. “I didn’t think we came out with that sort of intensity that we needed to and Purdue did. I thought Coach [Greg] Goff did a good job of getting his team ready. They are a good team, I think they are a regional[-worthy] team, I truly believe that. I hope the committee looks at that and looks at how they played us, looks at how they almost won 40 games, so credit to them for playing very well.
“They really had the game where they wanted [it]. Roman came up with the big triple, we thought it was a home run, and Brennan with the big base hit, but I’ve seen that all year. We’ve done that a few times. It’s not really how you draw it up. It was a good win, but at the end of the day, for us to go where we want to go, we have to play much, much better.”
The win encapsulated the season for the Bruins, who have a knack for dramatic wins.
“I mean, we’re all well-connected,” Levu said. “We know seven, eight and nine are our innings and that we just need to chip away and get one run an inning, just win each inning. It’s a part of our offense and goals.”
UCLA and USC (43-14) are scheduled to square off at noon PT on Saturday. The winner advances to Sunday’s Big Ten championship game.
UCLA ace and projected first-round draft pick Logan Reddemann, who hasn’t pitched since April 17 because of arm fatigue, will not pitch this weekend, Savage told reporters Friday night.
“We will not see Logan in the next two days,” Savage said. “We were hoping we would see him, but we certainly hope that he’s ready to go next week.”
“We just don’t give up, that’s about it.”
Mulivai Levu on No. 1 @UCLABaseball‘s latest comeback win pic.twitter.com/foulORtqW4 — Big Ten Baseball (@B1Gbaseball) May 23, 2026
