UCLA rallies late to beat Virginia Tech, stays alive in regional

Mulivai Levu and Roman Martin turned a two-run deficit into a one-run lead in the span of two swings, and Phoenix Call finished the comeback with a walk-off single as UCLA beat Virginia Tech, 6-5, in the NCAA Los Angeles Regional elimination game at Jackie Robinson Stadium. In front of a packed crowd in Los Angeles, the top national seed kept its season alive and moved to 52-7.

The win carried unusual weight because UCLA had already lost to Saint Mary’s on Friday, May 29, and became the first No. 1 overall seed to drop its opening NCAA tournament game. Virginia Tech arrived as the No. 2 seed after falling to Cal Poly, 6-2, in its opener, and for eight innings the Hokies looked positioned to extend the Bruins’ collapse into a second straight night.

Virginia Tech took a 5-3 lead into the bottom of the ninth after Ethan Ball delivered a solo home run in the eighth and Hudson Lutterman added an RBI single in the ninth. That gave the Hokies a late cushion, but UCLA answered with the kind of surge that has defined its season. Levu opened the ninth with a home run, Martin followed with another, and suddenly the Bruins were within one before Call ended it with a one-out single that scored Will Gasparino.

The rally marked UCLA’s 30th comeback victory of the season, a striking number for a team that spent much of the night leaning on its margin for error in a do-or-die regional game. Call’s hit was his second walk-off in the past week, another sign of how often UCLA has found a way to close tight games when the pressure peaks. After one of the season’s most volatile ninth innings, UCLA moved on in the double-elimination regional and kept alive the possibility of defending the top seed’s standing deep into the tournament.