Day Two of the 2025 College World Series featured two games riddled with intrigue. To begin the day, the UCLA Bruins and Murray State Racers faced off amidst the blistering midday Omaha heat in Game Three of the weekend. UCLA is no stranger to the Chuck – in fact the Bruins played in the Big Ten championship game just three weeks ago, in their first season as a member of the conference.
Murray State, on the flip side, is making its first-ever appearance in Omaha after winning both the Missouri Valley Conference regular season and tournament championships before grinding through the NCAA Tournament, becoming the fourth regional No. 4 seed to advance to Omaha.
UCLA came out looking like it had been dwelling on its previous game in Omaha, where it was blanked by the hometown Huskers, 5-0. The Bruins immediately loaded the bases in the bottom of the first inning and opened the scoring when Roman Martin walked, scoring teammate Dean West.
West then paid it forward with an RBI single in the second inning that brought Cashel Dugger across the plate.
Both teams threatened in the third inning with a pair of base runners each but eventually found their ways back to the dugout with no runs scored.
The floodgates opened in the fourth. Roch Cholowsky laid down a sacrifice bunt to bring home Phoenix Call, followed by another Roman Martin RBI on a single to center field, scoring Dean West once again. AJ Salgado kept it going when he came to the plate and smoked a ball down the right field line for a two-RBI double, good for the last two runs of the inning prior to Murray State’s escape.
Murray State did not advance to the CWS by shying away from pressure put on by bluebloods, just ask the Ole Miss Rebels. Murray State chipped away at UCLA’s lead, beginning with an RBI single from Carson Garner in the top of the fifth inning that put the Racers on the scoreboard.
They kept UCLA away from home plate in the bottom of the fifth, and went right back to work in the sixth, slowly but surely. This time, it was a Dan Tauken sacrifice fly to left field that scored Luke Mistone to make the game 6-2. Murray State was racing closer, and the home crowd began to make their allegiance known.
Again, keeping UCLA quiet with a three-up, three-down bottom half of the sixth, Murray State threatened once more in the seventh inning. With runners on first and third and two outs, Bruins skipper John Savage decided it was time to make his fifth pitching change of the game, opting this time for August Souza, who on the first batter he faced drew a flyout to center field, ending the inning and Murray State’s momentum.
Not for long though. In the top of the eighth inning, the Racers moved just a little bit closer into the Bruins rear-view mirror, starting with an RBI groundout by Charlie Jury, followed by another from Conner Cunningham to make it a 6-4 ballgame.
After scoring runs in three of the first four innings to take a 6-0 lead, UCLA’s offense had gone dormant. Thankfully for the Bruins, it was the top of the ninth, and Murray State was down to its last three outs facing UCLA’s No. 1 closer Easton Hawk.
Hawk retired three in a row for his eighth save of the season, stopping Murray State’s attempted comeback sending the Racers into the losers bracket and granting them the good fortune of meeting either Arkansas or LSU there on Monday afternoon.
Player of the Game: Dean West – West went 2-for-4 with one RBI and two runs scored Saturday. Scoring the first run of the game for the Bruins before driving in the second, West finished the game responsible for half of UCLA’s offense in the win.
Arkansas and LSU set up to be one of the best games so far in this year’s College World Series, featuring two starting pitchers among the top 50 prospects in this year’s MLB Draft and 11 total players ranked within the top 200.
Thirty minutes prior to gametime, the cheapest ticket you could find was over $150 and in the last row of general admission, behind the top rail in the lone row on the concourse. These fanbases are accustomed to Omaha, and with nine combined CWS appearances in the last 10 years for their respective teams, they might as well start searching Zillow for summer homes. We all know how well each fanbase travels. Combine that with the fact that these teams are the two favorites to win the national championship, and that can explain the demand for a seat at Charles Schwab Field Omaha Saturday night.
Game Four of the series may very well form the road that the championship runs through, and over 25,000 fans were in attendance to study that road thoroughly.
It was the Tigers who bit first. In the second inning, they had the bases loaded following a pair of walks and a successful bunt by Daniel Dickinson.
A single into left field by Chris Stanfield then drove in the first run for LSU, and one pitch later Arkansas pitcher Zach Root hit Michael Braswell in the leg while he was squaring up to bunt, adding run number two. Josh Pearson then reached base with an RBI fielder’s choice to stretch the Tigers’ lead with two outs.
Coach Dave Van Horn then made the early switch to sophomore Gabe Gaeckle, who prompted a ground ball to third base for the final out of the inning to stop the bleeding after LSU took a 3-0 lead.
It was strictly business for the nation’s top pitching prospect Kade Anderson through three innings, who allowed zero hits and let only two runners on base.
Anderson’s no-hit bid was broken up with a drive into left-center by Wehiwa Aloy in the fourth, but he later coaxed a ground ball to third for a double play to end the inning with the Tigers still holding the lead, 3-0.
It was much of the same through most of the fifth and sixth innings, with LSU’s bats cooling off after their second inning parade, putting only three batters on base in four subsequent innings.
Arkansas, however, was through with being shut out of the game, and Reese Robinett decided to do something about it. In the first at-bat of the bottom of the sixth inning, he sent a missile over the right field bullpen to make it a 3-1 affair.
Sometimes you just get got, but Kade Anderson quickly brushed it off, putting out the next six batters in a row through the sixth and seventh innings.
Meanwhile, Arkansas pitcher Gabe Gaeckle was dealing for the Hogs. Gaeckle posted a career-high 10 strikeouts and 6.0 innings pitched, allowing just three hits and no runs before being relieved by Cole Gibler with one out remaining in the top of the eighth inning.
In the next at-bat, Derek Curiel was down to his last strike against Gibler when he roped a single into left field. Charles Davalan made a play on the ball and fired a strike aimed directly at home plate. He had a great chance of catching Steven Milan, who was heading for home plate, but Gibler inexplicably cut the ball off, resulting in a run for the Tigers and leaving catcher Ryder Helfrick standing with his hands on his head.
With LSU ahead 4-1 in the bottom of the eighth, the hometown kid Cam Kozeal was batting leadoff for Arkansas and sent a hard-hit single to right field that started the inning with promise for the Razorbacks.
As a result, coach Jay Johnson finally paid a visit to the mound to remove Kade Anderson and end his reign of terror on the Arkansas batters. However, closer Chase Shores had no plans of letting up. He entered the game and put away three in a row to move onto the ninth inning and turn up the pressure on Arkansas’ hopes of a game one win.
With LSU’s bats quiet in the top of the ninth, the Razorbacks had three more outs to dig themselves out of a 4-1 hole against closer Casan Evans while batting at the top of their order.
Leadoff hitter Charles Davalan hit a line drive single up the middle, which would hopefully spark a late rally for Arkansas.
No such rally would ignite though, as the Tigers put away three straight, clinching their spot in the winners bracket Monday against UCLA.
While it wasn’t the high-flying, action-packed game that many hoped for, it was still a showcase of the future Major League talent in each dugout – and bullpen.
LSU’s Kade Anderson went seven innings, allowing just three hits and the lone home run. He likely could have finished the game, but coach Jay Johnson favored saving Anderson’s arm for a break-glass-in-case-of-emergency situation should it unfold that way early on Monday against UCLA.
Speaking of pitching, Gabe Gaeckle had a career night for the Razorbacks, dealing 10 strikeouts over six innings, allowing only one run, as mentioned previously. Gaeckle was Arkansas’ opening day starter in February, and coming out of the bullpen tonight, he proved on college baseball’s biggest stage that was for good reason.
Player of the Game: Kade Anderson – 7.0 innings pitched, three hits, one earned run, seven strikeouts. How much more can you say about that performance from this year’s potential No. 1 pick in the first game of the CWS?
While there was less drama, there was more great baseball in day two of the 2025 College World Series. In the first game of the day, Murray State proved that even though they were Cinderella, they belonged at The Greatest Show on Dirt, battling back after falling down six runs and giving UCLA all the trouble they could handle.
UCLA proved they could handle that trouble and then some, and that they would bring their own trouble to the winner of the following game between Arkansas and LSU. Seven different Bruins recorded hits in the game, five of them scored, and four drove in six runs to advance to the winners bracket of the first CWS appearance for UCLA in 12 years. That year UCLA won its first game of the series in bracket two and eventually went on to win its first CWS in program history.
Make no mistake – Arkansas is still a threat to win the College World Series. Drawing LSU and the best pitcher in the nation is a tough break for any team, and Arkansas had the misfortune of receiving that fate. They will meet Murray State in an elimination game Monday afternoon at 1 p.m. for the opportunity to face the winner of UCLA and LSU on Wednesday, should they advance.
LSU showed that they are still a force to be reckoned with in college baseball, and that they are on a collision course for their second national title in three seasons. The Tigers may cause some locals déjà vu, as they very closely resemble the national championship team of 2023 that beat SEC foe Tennessee in their first game behind eventual No. 1 pick Paul Skenes. LSU will face UCLA in the winners bracket game on Monday night at 6 p.m.
