John Savage shares what College World Series run says about UCLA baseball

Even though it ended short of a championship, John Savage knows this season was a special one for UCLA baseball. The Bruins bowed out of the College World Series bracket on Tuesday evening with a 7-3 loss against Arkansas.

It marked their second loss of the day after what was supposed to be a Monday night matchup against LSU ended up being delayed to Tuesday morning due to rain. Savage didn’t attempt to hide his disappointment while sitting at the podium following the loss to the Razorbacks. But he also kept the perspective of how difficult it is to even reach Omaha, let alone win the whole thing.

“It’s a tough tournament. I thought they represented themselves well,” he said. “Oregon State beat Florida State. Arizona went to North Carolina and won that. We beat a really good UTSA team that beat up Texas.

“This is a hard tournament and to be still playing on Tuesday, I guess, the rain, that was a tough situation. To play last night and play this morning and come back, you wouldn’t draw that up for anybody. But, you know, at the same time I’m not making any sort of excuses. But a lot of good players in the west. A lot of good coaches in the west. I think it has a bright future.”

UCLA was one of three former Pac-12 schools to reach the College World Series along with Arizona and Oregon State. However, all three of those schools have since been eliminated with only four teams left standing.

UCLA opened CWS play on Saturday with a 6-4 win against Murray State. It kept things close with LSU on Monday evening before the game was delayed in the fourth with the Tigers holding a 5-3 lead.

After a long layoff, the game resumed Tuesday morning and LSU immediately added another two runs to its lead. The Bruins were unable to find any momentum and that carried over into the Arkansas game, with the Razorbacks jumping out to a 7-0 lead.

UCLA has made the CWS four times in 21 years under John Savage and only won the title one time in the 2013 season. That alone should tell you how hard it is to pull off, as it is in any sport. So while a championship was clearly the ultimate goal, this season is still one of the best of his career and one he’ll surely remember forever.