UCLA

Katelyn Ohashi has gone viral for her gymnastics routines.

She has won two ESPY Awards.

She’s a former national champion and All-American who earned 11 perfect scores of 10 during her time at UCLA.

She once took first place in the all-round at an elite national competition, with the now-legendary Simone Biles finishing as runner-up.

But Ohashi apparently has some unfinished business in the sport, as the 29-year-old athlete announced her return to elite gymnastics Tuesday on Instagram.

“After a few years of contemplating whether I wanted to continue chasing a dream I had as a little kid, I have decided to go for it,” Ohashi wrote. “I’m taking it one day at a time; one skill, one event, one dream. I don’t have any regrets in my career and I want to be able to continue saying that no matter what happens. So here goes nothing!”

Katelyn Ohashi accepts the trophy for best play during the 2019 ESPY Awards at Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.

(Kevin Winter / Getty Images)

Ohashi thanks Pacific Reign Gymnastics, a U.S. national training center in Woodinville, Wash., “for taking a chance on me.” Her post also includes a video of herself at the gym performing a couple of floor skills — with her signature broad smile across her face. The clip uses the same audio of a phone buzzing and ringing as the video Serena Williams posted earlier this month to announce her return to competitive tennis.

Also on Tuesday, Pacific Reign posted on Instagram several photos of Ohashi working out at its facility, along with the caption, “Queen Kate trains to reign.” The gym also announced on its Instagram Story that Ohashi would compete Saturday at the American Classic event in Minneapolis.

Little else is known about Ohashi’s comeback plans. The Times reached out to an agency that represents the gymnast but received no immediate response. Pacific Reign referred questions pertaining to Ohashi to the same agency.

Born in Seattle, Ohashi made her senior elite gymnastics debut at the 2013 American Cup, where she outscored U.S. teammate Biles for all-around gold. Later that year, Biles would win the first of her record six world championships in the all-around.

Ohashi became a fan favorite while competing for the Bruins from 2015 to 2018. She earned nine perfect scores on the floor and two on the beam, with video from a January 2019 floor routine reportedly garnering 240 million views across various platforms (including a repost from future Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris).

UCLA gymnast Katelyn Ohashi’s viral floor routine.

The same routine won Ohashi two 2019 ESPY Awards, for best play and best viral moment.

In 2018, Ohashi was the co-national champion in the floor exercise and helped the Bruins win their seventh and most recent NCAA title. The 10-time All-American last competed in the 2019 national championships, where she placed third on the beam and helped UCLA finish third in the team competition.

“We can’t wait to see you back on the floor, Kate!” UCLA gymnastics posted Wednesday morning on X.

Ohashi was a featured performer in Biles’ “Gold Over America” gymnastics tours in 2021 and 2024.

The carpet rolls out.

Stars pose with their parents.

Cameras flash, capturing VIP guests emerging from luxury cars.

It has all of the makings of a Hollywood premiere.

Only the carpet that lines the entrance is royal blue instead of scarlet red. The “stars” are teenage football players on recruiting visits. The luxury car is parked on the turf of Spaulding Field. And the Hollywood show is in Westwood.

Despite the parallels, the feeling remains the same — something is brewing within the UCLA football program and it may yield awards.

The Bruins still are riding the high of their hire of coach Bob Chesney on Dec. 9.

And no group has felt the smoke of the Chesney Train more than the 2027 recruiting class.

The Bruins boast the No. 12 recruiting class in the nation and fourth best in the Big Ten, improvements of 50 and 11 spots, respectively, from the previous year, according to 247Sports’ composite rankings. UCLA had not produced a top-15 class since 2016.

Chesney’s inaugural group features 22 commits, including six four-star recruits, and is headlined by five-star defensive back Juju Johnson, who ranks as the third-best recruit from California and the second-best cornerback in the nation, per 247Sports.

However, to UCLA football general manager Darrick Yray — who spent the last four seasons at Florida State, signing a top-20 class each year — stars and rankings mean nothing without fit.

“It starts and stops with being developed in all areas, socially, academically, spiritually and athletically,” Yray said. “Those four pillars of a young man, we’re trying to attract here, but also are they going to fit in all four of those areas of what we are and what we hold our standard to. They need to be a great steward of what it means to be a student-athlete at UCLA.”

Chesney underscored a similar message during spring practices, illustrating that being a Bruin does not stop once you leave the gridiron.

Talent sets the foundation for what the coaching staff looks for, but character sets the ceiling for what they can become, Yray said.

And this motto is central to the staff’s recruitment efforts.

“You want guys who are intrinsically motivated rather than extrinsically,” Yray said. “It’s easy to get up when everyone’s watching and there’s 80,000 people in front of you. It’s what you’re doing when no one’s looking, it’s how you’re working, it’s how you’re studying. We want to be consistent across the board in everything that we do.”

Throughout spring camp, Chesney provided accessibility to recruits, stressing the importance of developing relationships with the schools, coaches and players in Southern California.

These efforts partly were to cultivate connections in an area saturated with talent, but also to establish relationships in an area Chesney has little experience in.

Providing accessibility also means instilling transparency.

Some players may not fit for UCLA, and UCLA may not fit for some players. And the only litmus test of finding the personnel who will thrive in the Chesney system is forming relationships off the field — allowing authenticity to rise to the top.

“It comes back to relatability. It’s not just football, it’s not just transactional, and it can’t be that way, in order for this to work,” Yray said. “I want to be genuine, and that’s what we want to be here too. This is what you’re going to get. It’s not going to change six months later. That’s how we’re going to be 24/7.”

It was this relatability and energy that drew in four-star wide receiver Kingston Celifie.

The Calabasas product — who boasted offers from California, Arizona and Kansas — first noticed Chesney’s energy on the field, seeing him run around to every position group and even get involved in drills.

But after more conversations, the staff’s collective determination to not only revitalize the program but also develop the whole individual gave Celifie confidence in UCLA, prompting the wide receiver to shut down his recruitment.

“Coach Chesney, he has great energy, which I was attracted to, and ultimately that’s why I committed. I just felt like it was home,” Celifie said. “I feel comfortable here. The official visit, everyone was celebrating all the accomplishments, and I really got to see the coaches outside of the football life, which was great.”

The acquisition of Celifie not only signified a major addition to the 2027 class, but also marked the start of the Bruins keeping homegrown talent in Los Angeles.

In making recruits feel at home when they’re on campus, it is imperative to make sure every part of their visit is tailored to them, Yray said.

While showing off the perks of the program and Los Angeles — through visits to Santa Monica and VIP tours from Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, a UCLA alum — is an integral part of the process, each recruit requires something different to ensure that the experience is what Yray called an “all-inclusive vacation.”

“What are the areas that are going to change their opinion of someplace, and are you checking off those boxes to make sure that they’re having the best experience every single time that they come here,” Yray said. “It can’t be a cookie-cutter mentality; it has to be individualized. If you were going somewhere, you want to have the best experience possible for 24 hours straight.”

Visits are not just a uniform formality, they are a one-of-a-kind experience.

JSerra’s Godschoice Eboigbodin is a 6-foot-5, 260-pound defensive end from Nigeria.

(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)

And no visit may have been more special than that of three-star edge Godschoice Eboigbodin.

During at-home visits with defensive ends coach Sam Daniels, the JSerra product was able to connect on a personal level with Daniels, describing him as “family” and “just another one of my friends.”

And at Eboigbodin’s official visit at UCLA, his birth family from Nigeria and host family in Southern California were able to come together for the first time, celebrating his accomplishments and giving the future Bruin confidence that UCLA was home.

“That was the first time both my families met — my real parents and my parents here. I was so excited,” Eboigbodin said. “That is why I had a really good time at my official visit at UCLA because it was really cool having them meet each other, connecting the families together. I was ecstatic.”

Chesney has yet to coach a game at UCLA, let alone one at the Power Four level. Yet, the momentum he has generated is real.

Not only is the 2027 recruiting class exceptional, but also the transfer class that will make up the majority of next season’s starters is excited to build the foundation of the program.

“Guys are bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, coming to work every single day,” Yray said. “We’re excited at the opportunity as a staff of what this presents, and we get to do this, at the greatest place in the world to do it. There’s no better location, there’s no better rich history. There’s really no excuse … to not have success here.”

Record-setting baseball team takes home hardware

From left, UCLA’s Dean West, Roch Cholowsky, Mulivai Levu and Roman Martin share pregame vibes before a 3-2 loss to Saint Mary’s during an NCAA regional at Jackie Robinson Stadium on May 29.

(Scott Strazzante/For The Times)

Since our last UCLA Unlocked newsletter, the Bruins baseball team earned more hardware.

UCLA first baseman Mulivai Levu was named an ABCA/Rawlings Gold Glove winner for the second consecutive season, becoming the first Bruin to win multiple Gold Gloves.

Levu had a .996 fielding percentage while committing two errors all season. He converted 446 putouts, had 21 assists and assisted on 42 double plays.

UCLA coach John Savage was named the Skip Bertman Coach of the Year by the College Baseball Foundation.

The Bruins were 52-8, matching the program record for wins, and their 48-6 regular-season mark was the best in school history. UCLA became the first wire-to-wire No. 1 team, opening and closing the season atop the top 25 in every major poll.

Named after the first coach inducted into the College Baseball Hall of Fame, the coach of the year award celebrates leaders on and off the field.

“I am truly honored to receive this award. Having Skip Bertman’s name on the trophy says everything,” Savage said in a news release. “He’s the legend of legends in this game. As a young coach out West, I always admired and looked up to Skip.”

Savage is the third-longest-tenured coach in UCLA baseball history and has a 776-489-2 record.

Junior shortstop Roch Cholowsky earned first-team All-America honors from Perfect Game, the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Assn., American Baseball Coaches Assn./Rawlings and Baseball America. Cholowsky hit .320 with 21 home runs, 60 RBIs and 73 runs scored while anchoring UCLA’s infield defense with a .965 fielding percentage. He ranked among the national leaders in OPS (1.088), slugging (.636) and on-base percentage (.452), starting all 60 games at shortstop.

Outfielder Will Gasparino was named a first team All-American by the NCBWA. Gasparino hit .314 with 20 home runs, 64 RBIs and 99 hits, finishing among the conference leaders in extra-base hits and total bases. He also posted a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage with 114 putouts.

Closer Easton Hawk earned first-team NCBWA and first-team ABCA/Rawlings All-America honors after posting a 1.93 ERA with 14 saves and 52 strikeouts across 34 appearances, holding opponents to a .187 average. He gave up nine earned runs all season.

Levu and pitchers Wylan Moss and Logan Reddemann earned second-team All-America honors from the NCBWA, while pitcher Angel Cervantes was named to the Perfect Game Freshman All American team.

In case you missed it

Swanson: She broke baseball’s glass ceiling. Now Kim Ng is taking softball to the next level

UCLA eliminated from WCWS by Kaitlyn Terry and Texas Tech in nine-inning thriller

UCLA baseball’s national title hopes shattered in season-ending loss to Saint Mary’s

UCLA baseball defeats Virginia Tech in a wild ninth-inning comeback to save its season

Megan Grant becomes UCLA’s all-time home run leader in win over Arkansas at WCWS

UCLA softball coaches Kelly Inouye-Perez and Lisa Fernandez inspire nation’s top offense

National title hopeful UCLA stunned in loss to Saint Mary’s in regional opener

UCLA pitcher shares his secret weapon: A two-inch toy dinosaur named ‘Jerry’

Megan Grant’s record-tying homer can’t save UCLA from loss to Alabama in WCWS opener

UCLA copes with pressure of being No. 1 target without ace Logan Reddemann

Q&A: How UCLA softball leadoff hitter Rylee Slimp manages pressure as Bruins reach WCWS

Have something Bruin?

Do you have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future UCLA newsletter? Email newsletters editor Houston Mitchell at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

Diversity in last year’s streaming films followed the same downward trend as theatrical releases, a new study found, with the percentage of people of color directing, writing and leading films diminishing.

In past years, streaming was considered a more accessible outlet for early-career female or BIPOC filmmakers, which was reflected in data about gender and racial representation. According to Part 2 of UCLA’s 2026 Hollywood Diversity Report, which was released Wednesday and analyzed all of the original English-language films distributed on major streaming platforms in 2025, that trend reversed across every category studied.

The share of streaming films directed by women declined to just over 23%, the lowest it’s been since 2022, when the annual study began analyzing streaming and theatrical films separately. Among those female directors, an overwhelming majority (81%) were allotted budgets below $20 million, while more than a quarter of the films directed by white men exceeded $50 million.

Only about 31% of streaming films last year had BIPOC directors, down 10% since 2024, when the proportion more closely reflected U.S. demographics.

“This is an industry in flux — and in reverse, especially when it comes to diversification,” Darnell Hunt, UCLA’s executive vice chancellor and provost and the report’s co-founder, said in a statement.

“Unfortunately, as we’ve seen with theatrical films, we’re now seeing the impact of this current political climate in very meaningful and concrete ways,” he continued. “As budgets tighten, opportunities for filmmakers of underrepresented backgrounds are always the first to be squeezed out.”

Despite losing ground behind the scenes and in front of the camera, women and people of color continued to drive streaming viewership in 2025, the report found.

The year’s biggest streaming hit, “KPop Demon Hunters,” was also the most-watched original Netflix film of all time, and according to Neilsen ratings, it was most streamed by women in Latinx households, followed by women in Asian and Black households. The report acknowledged the film as a “bright spot” in a disappointing year for diversity.

Michael Tran, a sociologist who co-authored the report, noted that the film’s impact and earnings potential could have been even greater with a theatrical release.

“It was a missed opportunity for theaters,” Tran said. “We’ve tracked how diverse films tend to succeed at the box office, here and abroad. For ‘KPop Demon Hunters,’ we could have been talking about record-breaking box office receipts in addition to topping the ratings.”

When “KPop Demon Hunters” did briefly screen in theaters — for two days last August, with over 1,750 locations domestically and more than 1,150 sold-out screenings — it was the No. 1 movie that weekend, earning about $18 million in ticket sales (though Netflix does not report exact box office figures).

Data from the report also indicated that streaming films with at least somewhat diverse casts tended to outperform in terms of audience and social media engagement.

However, overall cast diversity in streaming films declined in 2025. For the first time since 2022, films with a majority-BIPOC cast did not represent the plurality of streaming titles. Most notably, the percentage of lead actors of color dropped from a high of 51% in 2024 to 36% in 2025.

Report authors called it an “industry-wide chilling effect” reminiscent of a similar decline in diversity among theatrical films in 2024. That said, streaming films continued to star BIPOC leads more often than their theatrical counterparts, the study found.

The overall number of streaming films also declined. While the annual UCLA report typically examines the top 100 original, English-language movies across streaming platforms, this time, there were only 89 for researchers to analyze.

In addition to studying race and gender demographics in the film industry, the report also examined on-camera representations of disability. According to the study, while adults with a disability make up at least 26% of the U.S. population, actors with a known disability represented 6.5% of total streaming movie actors, which is in line with the previous year.

According to the study’s authors, streamers hoping to compete in a fast-paced, globalized market should increase their diversity efforts in light of these results.

“Kids under 18 are already majority BIPOC. There’s no going back if a studio wants to be profitable and relevant to Gen Z and Gen Alpha,” said report co-founder and co-author Ana-Christina Ramón. “Severing all brand loyalty now will only make it more difficult to regain long-term subscribers in the future.”

Beneath azure skies and fluffy white clouds, three giggling toddlers and their mothers arrive at a candy-colored water park in the town of CoComelon.

It’s the opening of “Fast Little Fishy Splash Water Park Adventure,” a three-minute episode of “CoComelon,” the popular children’s cartoon series that is perhaps as controversial as it is appealing to young children.

Moonbug Entertainment, the studio behind “CoComelon,” says the episode, which debuted on YouTube in May, is the result of a years-long collaboration with a UCLA think tank.

In an unconventional move for a privately held entertainment company, the studio released its child development guidelines on its website Tuesday. Moonbug’s head of communications Bao Nguyen said the company began to incorporate findings from the research into its creative process in late 2025.

“It’s a great example of what we’ve been trying to do,” said Rich Hickey, Moonbug’s chief creative officer, referring to the episode. “Inclusive storytelling and learning through play — they’re all evident within that episode.”

Nina and Cody, ecstatic about visiting their neighborhood splash pad, run through fountains and hop in kiddie pools, but protagonist JJ is a bit more skeptical.

With support from his friends and his mother, who offers him goggles and a pair of orange arm floaties, JJ decides to face his fears. He joins his friends under a tipping bucket, and — spoiler alert — realizes that he actually enjoys playing in water. (“I just love to swim, swim, swim,” he sings.)

The guidelines, called the “Moonbug Learning Principles Framework,” are informed by academic research and advise that Moonbug shows should help young viewers navigate “real life moments” and “model positive relationships among children and their friends and caregivers.”

Other priorities include creating shows that encourage kids to learn through play, as this helps them develop their imagination and creativity, and featuring characters from diverse backgrounds (“CoComelon’s” Nina is Mexican American, Cece is Korean American and Cody is Black) — and giving said characters depth — across all Moonbug shows.

“We’re a digital-first company and we realized that there may be some … hesitation to sharing online content with children,” Hickey said. “This is really to keep building on the trust we think we’ve built.”

“CoComelon” is Moonbug’s flagship preschool show, and the series’ origins date back to 2006 when commercial director Jay Jeon shared a YouTube video of an alphabet cartoon set to music. The videos began to revolve around toddler JJ in 2017.

By 2020, “CoComelon” was the most-watched YouTube channel in the world, averaging 3.5 billion monthly views. That year, the show made its streaming debut on Netflix — where it broke ratings records — and was bought by London-based entertainment company Moonbug.

Moonbug was then acquired by Candle Media, a firm led by ex-Disney execs Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs, for a reported $3 billion. Disney+ has since obtained the exclusive streaming rights to “CoCoMelon.”

“CoComelon‘s” image woes aren’t new. The series has developed a reputation for keeping children glued to the screen, as seen in videos that have gone viral on social media of babies bolting to the television upon hearing the marimba theme song.

In 2020, a Guardian columnist wrote that “CoComelon” was “like crack” for a preschool child. A New York Times report in 2022 gave the public more insight into Moonbug’s audience development process, which included testing “CoComelon” videos on young children to make its shows as attention-grabbing as possible.

The program has been a hot topic on parenting forums. The exchange typically goes something like this: Someone asks if “CoComelon” is “bad” and a gaggle of parents weigh in. “Very overstimulating,” said a user in one Reddit thread. “It moves too fast for kids’ brains to process, which can cause a speech delay,” wrote another.

Asked to respond to the criticism, Hickey said he believes Moonbug makes “age-appropriate content” and produces a range of videos to cater to different moments throughout a child’s day, from slow bedtime videos to faster-paced ones meant to encourage movement, Hickey said.

In 2023, Moonbug recruited the Center for Scholars and Storytellers, a think tank at UCLA that bridges entertainment media and psychology research, to “create the best possible product” for its audience, Hickey said.

The center was tasked with analyzing Moonbug’s content and crafting the learning principles to guide the studio’s future preschool programming, which also includes the “Blippi” and “Little Angel” franchises.

A scene from Moonbug Entertainment’s “Blippi’s Job Show.”

(Jessica Perez / Moonbug)

Moonbug also asked the center to determine if there was research showing that audiovisual content could be addicting for preschoolers, said Yalda T. Uhls, an assistant adjunct professor of psychology at UCLA and executive director of the Center for Scholars and Storytellers. Uhls said the center’s review of existing peer-reviewed research found that there was no such evidence.

And despite oft-repeated claims that long-form content is better for kids than short-form content, “there isn’t really actually any evidence for that,” Uhls said. “It’s very inconclusive.”

The center found that preschool children struggle to learn as much from content with frequent cuts, though consuming it doesn’t impact their attention span negatively, Uhls said.

As such, the principles the center crafted recommend Moonbug “minimize distractions and tangential songs or storylines” when characters are navigating real-life situations to make sure it does not interfere with preschool children’s ability to learn lessons.

The center interviewed members of Moonbug’s creative teams and formed an advisory council of academic experts in child development to evaluate a selection of Moonbug’s episodes, assess the quality of socio-emotional learning and find areas for improvement, Uhls said.

“The content certainly had a lot of places where it could improve, but it wasn’t horrible,” Uhls said. “There was some learning within the episodes. … It wasn’t all good, it wasn’t all bad.”

Uhls said she recalled several instances of episodes modeling unsafe behavior, but declined to share specifics.

The center plans to continue to work with Moonbug to integrate child development research much earlier in the studio’s creative process and aid with the integration of the learning principles into its content slate, Uhls said.

There’s no crying in baseball, but Kim Ng works in softball now. And as commissioner of the Athletes Unlimited Softball League, the former Dodgers assistant general manager has been fielding lots of tearful feedback from fans overcome by the fact that softball players finally, finally have a big league of their own.

“I can’t even tell you the number of people that have approached me, just openly sobbing with happiness,” she said. “It’s been incredible, experiencing all of that and understanding how long people have been waiting for something like this.”

It really is like that. Ask Lisa Fernandez, softball pioneer and total boss: “I’ll be watching and get emotional, just looking at how far this game has come.”

With MLB backing the Athletes Unlimited Softball League, or AUSL, for a second season and Ng back to steer it, sustainable professional softball is starting to feel real.

Former UCLA pitcher Rachel Garcia plays for Athletes Unlimited Team McQuillin.

(Grant Halverson / Getty Images)

Fernandez remembers when it was a huge deal to get one softball game on TV, and now ESPN will broadcast 50 AUSL games and ABC will carry the championship. And after last year’s four-team 10-city barnstorming tour, the league will add two teams and anchor itself to locations in North Carolina, Illinois, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas and Utah.

The ball gets rolling on Tuesday, just days after the conclusion of the Women’s College World Series — which last season averaged a record 1.3 million viewers on ESPN, including pulling 3.9 million for UCLA’s thriller against Tennessee.

Big steps, baby steps. All going the right direction.

“I would hope that we are the major league baseball of softball,” Ng, 57, said in a phone conversation. “That is a good number of teams, spread out across the country, with a huge following, all of our games televised.

“That’s the goal. To be the MLB of softball.”

Ng spent more than 30 years in the MLB, including a decade-long stint with the Dodgers. She was also the first woman to serve as a big-league general manager, leading the Miami Marlins from 2020 through the 2023 season. She declined her option after the team made its first full-season playoff appearance in two decades and then announced plans to introduce a president of baseball operations position that would’ve siphoned away some of her say-so.

Miami Marlins general manger Kim Ng, left, sits in a golf cart and talks with manager Marlins Skip Schumaker during a 2023 spring training workout.

(Lynne Sladky / Associated Press)

“Breaking that glass ceiling, that’s special to me,” Ng said. “But I think in a different way, this [work with the AUSL] is for sure one of the more meaningful things I’ve done.”

She said a former MLB colleague recently asked her about the AUSL: “I said, ‘I’m working for the women now.’”

The former co-worker corrected her: “You were always working for the women.’”

Before that, as a kid, she was a softball infielder in Long Island and then at the University of Chicago. “I was scrappy,” Ng said, “which is definitely how I describe my personality and the way I approach most things in life.”

It’s served her well. And now it’s serving softball, a sport that for decades has been among the most popular for girls in America, even without long-term playing prospects or pro players to strive to emulate.

Compare it with basketball: About three-quarters of the WNBA’s current players have never even lived in a world without an established professional women’s basketball league in America.

UCLA star hitter Megan Grant will play in the Athletes Unlimited softball league after wrapping up her record-setting college career.

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

The NBA-backed WNBA is celebrating its 30th season this summer with a lucrative new CBA and 15 teams, two of them expansion franchises, including one in Canada, and the Bay Area-based Golden State Valkyries valued at $850 million.

The AUSL is about to embark on Year 2.

There have been attempts to start up professional softball leagues before. Those weren’t just long shots, more like Megan Grant moonshots.

But now we have Bryanna Lopez, a 12-year-old catcher from Alhambra, sitting in the Easton Stadium stands at UCLA, watching her heroes play and telling me, without hesitation: “I want to play professional softball. It’s a really big dream.”

And a really big deal.

For players and a growing audience of folks like Kaitlyn Laabs, the superfan in a chef’s hat at UCLA games, who want to watch the home run queen Grant continue to mash. To see her teammates Jordan Woolery keep flaunting her flashy slash line and Taylor Tinsley sharpening her wicked arsenal of pitches.

UCLA starting pitcher Taylor Tinsley and first baseman Jordan Woolery are poised to start their professional softball careers this week.

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

“A lot of times, seniors come in their last year thinking it’s the end of their career, and that puts a lot more pressure,” UCLA’s Woolery said earlier this month, before the Bruins advanced to the Women’s College World Series for the third straight season. “So, for me, Megan, Tins, [the AUSL] opens us up a little bit to play free, knowing it’s not the end of the road.”

Ng’s presence, first as an adviser and starting last season as commissioner, is helping legitimize the new league.

“She’s the right person at the right time,” said Fernandez, the UCLA associate head coach, who is also the general manager of the defending champion Utah Talons. “Knowing Kim’s background in baseball, having her know the business of how to run a league, a no-brainer for me.”

Ng’s team-building acumen is helping her coach up first-time general managers. Her experience at MLB’s league office, working to grow the game internationally, ensures she’ll be patient, methodical — which is to say, the AUSL is not rushing to join the Sparks and the National Women’s Soccer League’s Angel City FC in the complicated, competitive L.A. market until it’s good and ready.

“Softball just has had its ups and downs in terms of creating a solid foundation,” Ng said. “Why has it taken so long? It’s hard to say, but obviously the revenue is a huge piece of it. Now, with MLB as a major investor, they’re understanding of the idea that we’re complementary.”

MLB has invested a reported $10 million in the AUSL — in addition to offering its massive promotional platform. So after Grant hit an NCAA record-extending 39th home run, the No. 4 overall pick was interviewed by Harold Reynolds on “MLB Tonight.”

Beside Grant, who is bound for the Portland Cascade, there will be 12 other former Bruins sprinkled among the league’s six rosters. Woolery and Tinsley will team up with a few other former Bruins on the Talons.

“You’d lose a generation of players if the growth is capped,” said Laabs, the softball fan. “But right now, softball is on a rocket ship. Let’s keep on cooking, let’s keep on flying, let’s show that if you build it, they will come.”

UCLA baseball eliminated

From Joaquin Ruiz: Saint Mary’s has achieved the seemingly unthinkable — the Gaels have eliminated UCLA, the nation’s top-ranked team, from the NCAA tournament.

With two outs in the 10th inning, Makoa Sniffen drove in Cody Kashimoto on a walk-off single off UCLA reliever Easton Hawk to lift Saint Mary’s to a 6-5 comeback win Sunday in a Los Angeles Regional elimination game at Jackie Robinson Stadium.

The Gaels (36-26), who also stunned the Bruins (52-8) in the regional opener on Friday, made the Big Ten champions just the second NCAA No. 1 overall seed — after Vanderbilt in 2025 — to be eliminated from the regional round since the current format was established in 1999.

“Obviously, this weekend, we just did not play up to our standards,” UCLA coach John Savage said. “I really felt it was a struggle, for whatever reason — all three games, really. But it’s nothing to take away from this team. You win 52 games [and are] preseason [No.1], and you never leave that spot; it’s really remarkable and a lot of credit to our captains, to our seniors, to the entire program … I just can’t say enough about the people that I’m around and that I’ve coached.”

Continue reading here

UCLA softball eliminated

From Tim Willert: Jordan Woolery nearly saved UCLA’s season Sunday night at the Women’s College World Series. She lined a single up the middle in the ninth inning off former teammate Kaitlyn Terry to score Rylee Slimp from second base and pull the Bruins within a run of Texas Tech.

But Red Raiders ace NiJaree Canady replaced Terry in the circle and retired the final two batters, stranding Megan Grant at second in UCLA’s 8-7 season-ending loss.

Woolery, the nation’s RBIs leader, homered twice and drove in five runs for UCLA (53-10), which got nine innings and 181 pitches from workhorse Taylor Tinsley.

Continue reading here

UCLA softball coaches Kelly Inouye-Perez and Lisa Fernandez inspire nation’s top offense

USC baseball sets up showdown with Texas A&M

From Jose de Jesus Ortiz: On a night when the crowd at Blue Bell Park saw some of the most majestic home runs you’ll see in college baseball, USC’s Andrew Johnson showed why pitching is still paramount Sunday.

The sophomore right-hander delivered arguably the most important pitching performance of the season for USC, beating Texas A&M 14-3 to propel the Trojans to a winner-take-all College Station Regional Final on Monday.

After needing five pitchers in a rout over Texas State earlier in the day just to reach the regional final out of the losers’ bracket, USC coach Andy Stankiewicz rode Johnson on Sunday night.

Two nights after throwing 21 pitches over 1⅔ innings, Johnson threw 124 pitches over 7⅓ strong innings to beat the host Aggies (41-14) before a crowd of 6,934.

Leading 11-2, Johnson retired the first batter in the top of the eighth inning before Nico Partida singled to right. Jake Duer followed with an RBI triple to right field, prompting a call to right-hander Rohan Kasanagottu.

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Dodgers beat the Phillies

From Liana Handler: Not a cake or a ribbon-wrapped present, but the Dodgers celebrated manager Dave Roberts’ 54th birthday with a 9-1 win over the Phillies on Sunday. The Dodgers ended their homestand with a 5-1 record despite their six-game winning streak ending the night before.

“You’re gonna get beat at times, it’s gonna happen,” Roberts said. “But I do think with the talent that we have, if we focus and play like we’re capable of, we should win series, regardless of home, road.”

Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto (5-4) held the Phillies hitless over the first three innings.

Yamamoto, much like Roki Sasaki the night before, threw his pitches faster than normal. But the elevated velocity didn’t seem to affect his performance beyond extending at-bats. Despite throwing his four-seam fastball 1 mph faster than usual, the pitch resulted in a strike 76% of the time.

“During the preparation this week towards today’s game, I was always having a great feeling, and then I think I was able to get myself pretty ready,” Yamamoto said through interpreter Yoshihiro Sonoda. “I was prepared. … And then I was getting into the game with confidence.”

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Dodgers box score

MLB standings

Angels lose to Rays

Shane McClanahan pitched one-run ball for five innings, Jonathan Aranda homered and the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Angels 5-2 on Sunday.

McClanahan (6-2) gave up four hits, struck out three and didn’t issue a walk. Bryan Baker pitched a scoreless ninth for his career-high 16th save this season in 19 chances.

Aranda hit a solo homer in the first inning before Jose Siri singled with two out in the second, advanced to third when Logan O’Hoppe doubled and scored on a wild pitch by McClanahan to make it 1-1.

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Angels box score

MLB standings

Arte Moreno should sell the Angels

From Bill Plaschke: He showed up 23 years ago as the lovably grounded steward of one of baseball’s soaring sports franchises.

Remember the first thing Arte Moreno did as Angels owner? He lowered the beer prices!

“I’m not going to think about it,” he said boldly and decisively. “I’m going to.”

The second thing he did was hand out sombreros in honor of his Mexican heritage and status as the first Latino majority owner in America’s major professional sports.

“Being Mexican American, I’d like to reach out to Mexican Americans,” Moreno said. “But also to everyone.”

The third thing he did was answer a question about the Dodgers with a question.

“Who?” he said, “The Angels won the World Series. We are the No. 1 baseball team in the world. There is no reason for us to look over our shoulders.”

It was the most delightful introductory news conference I’ve ever attended, Moreno saying all the right things, doing all the smart things, and ultimately embracing his new purchase’s greatest asset.

“My responsibility is to take care of the Angel fan,” he said. “My job is to make sure we live up to the tradition. My job is to make people comfortable here.”

Twenty-three years later, those first impressions have long since been replaced by lasting erosions.

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Angel City loses to North Carolina

Manaka Matsukubo finished with a goal and an assist to lead the North Carolina Courage to a 2-1 win over Angel City at BMO Stadium on Sunday.

Matsukubo slipped a ball through to Evelyn Ijeh, who calmly finished to give the Courage a 1-0 lead in the 48th minute. With the goal, Ijeh has landed on the scoresheet in three straight matches.

Three minutes later, Evelyn Shores’ pinpoint cross into the box found the head of Maiara Niehues for the equalizer.

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Angel City summary

NWSL standings

This day in sports history

1946 — Assault, ridden by Warren Merhtens, wins the Belmont Stakes to become the seventh horse to capture the Triple Crown.

1968 — Stage Door Johnny, ridden by Heliodoro Gustines, wins the Belmont Stakes in a record time of 2:27 1-5 and spoils the Triple Crown bid of Forward Pass, who finishes 1 1/4 lengths behind.

1975 — Kathy Whitworth wins the LPGA tournament by one stroke over Sandra Haynie.

1977 — Dutch soccer club FC Volendam is established as a result of split up with RKSV; 6-time Eerste Divisie champions.

1979 — NBA Finals: Seattle Supersonics beat Washington Bullets, 97-93 for a 4-1 series victory; Seattle’s first major pro sports championship win.

1986 — Pat Bradley wins the LPGA tournament and becomes the first to win all four major women’s tournaments, beating Patty Sheehan by one stroke.

1992 — The Pittsburgh Penguins win the Stanley Cup for the second straight year, beating the Chicago Blackhawks 6-5 for a four-game sweep.

1993 — Phoenix Suns guard Dan Majerle sets a then NBA Playoff record by sinking eight three-pointers during the Suns’ 120-114 win over Seattle in Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals.

1994 — Indiana guard Reggie Miller drills an NBA Playoff record five three-pointers in the fourth quarter of the Pacers’ 93-86 win over host New York Knicks in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals.

1996 — The LSU women win their 10th consecutive NCAA track team title with 81 points, the longest victory string in women’s college sports.

2002 — Detroit advances to the Stanley Cup finals for the fourth time in eight years with a 7-0 win over Colorado in Game 7 of the Western Conference finals. Colorado becomes the first NHL team to play in four consecutive Game 7s. Detroit goalie Dominik Hasek sets an NHL record by recording his fifth shutout of the playoffs.

2002 — In a battle of former heavyweight boxing champions in Atlantic City, Evander Holyfield beats Hasim Rahman by TKO; fight stopped 1:40 into 8th round because of giant welt above Rahman’s left eye.

2004 — Detroit and Indiana combine for just 60 first-half points in the Pistons’ 69-65 victory, breaking the NBA playoff record of 62 set by the Pistons and Nets during the second round.

2008 — Hillary Will is the 11th woman in NHRA history to win a national event when she takes the Top Fuel event at the O’Reilly NHRA Summer Nationals. Will drives her dragster to a 4.744-second run at a top speed of 304.53 mph, beating No. 1 qualifier Larry Dixon for her first career win in Top Fuel.

2010 — French Open upset specialist Robin Soderling strikes again, rallying past defending champion Roger Federer in a rainy quarterfinal, 3-6, 6-3, 7-5, 6-4. The loss ends Federer’s record streak of reaching the semifinals in 23 consecutive major events.

2019 — Mexican-American boxer Andy Ruiz Jr produces a huge upset when he stops English champion Anthony Joshua in 7 at Madison Square Garden; wins IBF, WBO, IBO and WBA world heavyweight titles.

2019 — UEFA Champions League Final, Madrid: Liverpool beats Tottenham, 2-0 for Reds’ 6th title.

Compiled by the Associated Press

This day in baseball history

1923 — The New York Giants scored in every inning to beat the Philadelphia Phillies 22-8 at the Baker Bowl.

1925 — Lou Gehrig batted for Pee Wee Wanninger in the eighth and replaced Wally Pipp at first base to start his streak of 2,130 consecutive games. The Washington Senators beat the New York Yankees 5-3.

1937 — Bill Dietrich of the Chicago White Sox pitched a no-hitter against the St. Louis Browns in an 8-0 win.

1975 — Nolan Ryan of the Angels pitched his fourth no-hitter, striking out nine. Ryan tied Sandy Koufax’s record by beating the Baltimore Orioles 1-0. It was Ryan’s 100th victory.

1977 — Seattle’s Ruppert Jones homered off Cleveland’s Dennis Eckersley in the fifth inning to snap Eckersley’s no-hit string of 22 1-3 innings, just two outs short of Cy Young’s major league record. The Indians went on to win, 7-1.

1987 — Cleveland’s Phil Niekro pitched the Indians to a 9-6 victory, his 314th, over the Detroit Tigers. The win gave himself and his brother, Joe, a major league record 530 combined victories, surpassing Gaylord and Jim Perry.

2000 — Pawtucket’s Tomo Ohka became the third pitcher in the 117-year history of the International League to throw a nine-inning perfect game when he beat the Charlotte Knights 2-0.

2005 — Miguel Tejada hit a homer, three doubles and scored three runs in Baltimore’s 9-3 victory over Boston.

2009 — The New York Yankees played error free for the 18th straight game in a 5-2 victory over the Cleveland Indians, surpassing Boston’s major league mark of 17 set in 2006. New York’s last error came on May 13 at Toronto when shortstop Ramiro Pena misplayed a groundball.

2011 — Cincinnati’s Francisco Cordero got his 300th save, securing the Reds’ 4-3 win over the Milwaukee Brewers. Cordero pitched a perfect ninth, becoming the 22nd reliever to achieve 300 saves, tying Bruce Sutter at the mark.

2012 — Johan Santana pitched the first no-hitter in New York Mets’ history. Santana was helped by an umpire’s missed call and an outstanding catch in left field in an 8-0 victory over St. Louis Cardinals. Carlos Beltran, back at Citi Field for the first time since the Mets traded him last July, hit a line drive over third base in the sixth inning that hit the foul line and should have been called fair. But third base umpire Adrian Johnson ruled it foul and the no-hitter was intact. Mike Baxter made a tremendous catch in left field to rob Yadier Molina of extra bases in the seventh, getting injured in the process.

2012 — Jonathan Crawford threw the seventh no-hitter in NCAA tournament history, shutting down Bethune-Cookman in a 4-0 victory in the opener of the Gainesville Regional. Crawford, a sophomore, was nearly perfect and faced the minimum 27 batters. The only player to reach base was Bethune-Cookman’s Jake Welch on a walk in the third inning, and Florida catcher Mike Zunino threw him out trying to steal.

2012 — Alex Miklos hit a go-ahead RBI triple in the 21st inning as Kent State outlasted Kentucky 7-6 in the second-longest game in NCAA tournament history. The Golden Flashes held the lead in the ninth and 18th innings, but the Wildcats answered both times to extend the game. It was the longest game in the NCAA tournament since Texas beat Boston College 3-2 in 25 innings on May 30, 2009.

2016 — Indians OF Marlon Byrd is suspended for 162 games after the second positive test for PEDs of his career. At 39, it marks the end of the former All-Star’s career.

2021 — The Olympic hopes end for three countries. Puerto Rico falls, 7-6, in 10 innings to Nicaragua in the Americas Olympic Qualifier, as Benjamín Alegría doubles twice, scores twice and drives in a run while Norman St. Clair and Berman Espinoza turn in six shutout innings of relief. Venezuela walks it off to eliminate Colombia as Diego Rincones breaks a 2-2 tie in the bottom of the 9th with a solo shot off Carlos Ocampo. Canada eliminates Cuba (missing the Olympics for its first time as a medal event), 6-5, as John Axford saves it for Dustin Molleken to overcome three runs by Roel Santos. In the other game, Team USA locks up a spot in the semifinals with an 8-6 win over the Dominican national team, Luke Williams hitting a big two-run triple. Nicaragua and the Dominicans will play tomorrow for the last semifinal spot to join the US, Canada and Venezuela.

Compiled by the Associated Press

Until next time…

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

Saint Mary’s has achieved the seemingly unthinkable — the Gaels have eliminated UCLA, the nation’s top-ranked team, from the NCAA tournament.

With two outs in the 10th inning, Makoa Sniffen drove in Cody Kashimoto on a walk-off single off UCLA reliever Easton Hawk to lift Saint Mary’s to a 6-5 comeback win Sunday in a Los Angeles Regional elimination game at Jackie Robinson Stadium.

The Gaels (36-26), who also stunned the Bruins (52-8) in the regional opener on Friday, made the Big Ten champions just the second NCAA No. 1 overall seed — after Vanderbilt in 2025 — to be eliminated from the regional round since the current format was established in 1999.

“Obviously, this weekend, we just did not play up to our standards,” UCLA coach John Savage said. “I really felt it was a struggle, for whatever reason — all three games, really. But it’s nothing to take away from this team. You win 52 games [and are] preseason [No.1], and you never leave that spot; it’s really remarkable and a lot of credit to our captains, to our seniors, to the entire program … I just can’t say enough about the people that I’m around and that I’ve coached.”

Against all odds, Saint Mary’s is still alive and playing Cal Poly in the regional final on Sunday night.

“Felt like 12 rounds with the heavyweight champ,” Saint Mary’s coach Eric Valenzuela said of the Gaels’ wins over UCLA. “So proud of our group, the fight.”

Favored to win their first national title since 2013, the Bruins led the Gaels 5-4 entering the ninth and needed just three outs to continue what had been the program’s best season ever.

But Tanner Griffith led with a base hit off UCLA reliever Cal Randall and — after being moved to second following a sacrifice bunt from Diego Castellanos — catcher Ian Armstrong brought Griffith home with an RBI single to right field off Hawk.

Saint Mary’s reliever David Roberts retired the Bruins in order in the 10th. Hawk then struck out Brayden Gutierrez before Kashimoto hit an infield single. Griffith advanced Kashimoto to second on a groundout to first. Two batters later, Sniffen’s hit to left field gave Kashimoto just enough time to beat a throw to the plate, sealing the Gaels’ win.

Randall and Hawk pitched in all three of UCLA’s regional games. Savage saluted the entire pitching staff — highlighting Angel Cervantes’ development as a freshman — but added that Logan Reddemann’s absence had a “major effect” on the staff. The ace right-hander hadn’t pitched since April 17 because of arm soreness.

“It had a ripple effect on the starters, had a ripple effect on the bullpen,” Savage said of Reddemann’s absence. “The effect it had on roles, the effect it had on usage [was a] major deal. No excuses, because [we] still won. But at the same time, it looked a little different and it felt a little different, and at the end, I think it really hurt losing a potential first-rounder the last six weeks.”

The Big Ten coach of the year took the time to acknowledge the Bruins’ junior class for sticking with the program throughout its ascent, admiring the “all kinds of players” he expects to be selected in July’s MLB draft.

Savage, though, was particularly emotional when discussing the eventual departure of shortstop and back-to-back Big Ten player of the year Roch Cholowsky, who is widely expected to be a first-round pick.

“Cholowsky just meant so much to the program,” Savage said. “He just had such an impact on the program. He had such an impact on people. Had impact on a fan base. Had impact on the community. Just such a winning, winning player. It’s hard to watch a guy like that leave … but it’s what he’s all about. He’s all about the right things.

“He’s a Bruin through and through. And at the end of the day, you couldn’t ask for a better player or a better person than Roch.”

Led by Cholowsky and eight other All-Big Ten selections, with the best team ERA (3.27) throughout the regular season, the Bruins had lost merely six times before the regional and had won every series.

But after losing two games to Saint Mary’s, as regional hosts for a second consecutive year, UCLA has no choice but to go back to the drawing board in preparation for 2027.

“I feel for them,” Savage said of his clubhouse. “It’s the college game … anything can happen. We didn’t play well enough this weekend.”

UCLA’s Megan Grant is just like every other college senior her age.

Sure, it might not seem like it from the outside looking in. After all, how can someone who has hit 89 home runs across her college career — one short of the Bruins’ record — and helped one of softball’s most dynamic offensive teams check off a list of new NCAA and program records relate to the other sociology majors in her classes at UCLA?

Grant disappears into her head sometimes, something she readily acknowledges. But her solution might not be as accessible to all the other “Twilight”-binging, video-game-loving UCLA students. She has coach Kelly Inouye-Perez keep her, the Division I home run queen, from getting caught up in the moment.

“She does a really great job with just keeping me neutral,” Grant said. “Sometimes I may get in a little crazy headspace, but she does a really great job helping me get out of those feelings that I’m stuck in, and she pulls me out and makes me realize, ‘Hey, as long as I can be who I am, that’s enough.’”

UCLA head coach Kelly Inouye-Perez, left, confers with associate head coach Lisa Fernandez next to infielder Jordan Woolery during NCAA reigonal game on May 15.

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

Inouye-Perez and assistant coach Lisa Fernandez are some of the Bruins’ biggest keys to success as the team prepares for the start of the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City. The Bruins will face Texas Tech at 4 p.m. PDT Sunday in a game airing on ESPN.

UCLA closed its super regional with a single-season home run record (200) and a record for WCWS appearances (34).

Grant is no stranger to the work necessary to see that level of success. But even in her rare bad at-bats and struggles, Inouye-Perez and Fernandez allow her the space to fail. After all, there are nine places in the lineup. One person alone isn’t indicative of UCLA’s wins or losses, Inouye-Perez says.

“We really focus on succeeding and learning how to fail, so they can just get to the next pitch,” Inouye-Perez said. “We talk about the ability to slow the game down, to take deep breaths, to be able to enjoy the moment. It’s not on any one Bruin.”

That mentality doesn’t exist in a void. Inouye-Perez and Fernandez worked in tandem to create the powerhouse team, which is in the midst of one of the best offensive seasons in D1 softball history.

Inouye-Perez is in her 20th year coaching the Bruins and is the only NCAA softball player to win a championship as a player and a coach. She led the 2010 and 2019 teams to those titles. Meanwhile, Fernandez, in her 28th year coaching at UCLA and her fourth as associate coach, has taken primary responsibility for hitting — one of the Bruins’ biggest keys to success. The team leads the nation in batting average (.385), RBIs per game (10.38) and on-base percentage (.496).

“Me and her, we’re workhorses,” Grant said of Fernandez. “We work all day after practice hours together, and it just means the world. You can tell that she loves the game and her little nuggets that she teaches me.”

The Bruins’ success in the batter’s box also has helped raise the tide of a team that could’ve fallen into many pitfalls. The team has only one main pitcher, Taylor Tinsley, who’s spent the most time in the circle in the NCAA tournament with 29-1/3 innings pitched. The Bruins are also young. Of the 21 players on the roster, only eight are seniors, redshirt juniors or juniors.

Seniors Jordan Woolery and Grant are one pace to break NCAA records, but the underclassmen aren’t far behind. Redshirt freshman Aleena Garcia set a single-game RBI record (7) when she hit two three-run homers in UCLA’s 14-4 win over Central Florida in the Super Regional.

Much like Inouye-Perez, Fernandez’s best attribute is her ability to be a sounding board for Grant.

“You get her enthusiasm too,” Grant said. “If you mess up, she’s always there to have your back. She celebrates your wins as well, and she gets very ecstatic about it. It almost makes me laugh, because it makes things so much more fun. She just brings that out of people.”

Even when teams lose to UCLA and Fernandez, it’s still a positive experience for some.

UCLA associate head coach Lisa Fernandez huddles near the mound with starting pitcher Taylor Tinsley (23) during the fifth inning of a comeback win over California Baptist. The Lancers scored 10 runs in the fifth, but Tinsley bounced back from outing.

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

Central Florida coach Cindy Ball-Malone considered Fernandez one of the best softball players ever, calling her the Michael Jordan of the sport. But what makes her truly impressive, Ball-Malone said, is that Fernandez is an even better coach.

“She’s just a winner,” Ball-Malone said. “I kind of just want to rub up on her or something to get that mojo because she’s got it. Her attention to detail, her belief in the smallest things, that’s why she is so good at what she does.”

It’s no wonder then why so many people, regardless of team affiliation, want to see UCLA’s coaches in person.

If you’re a part of the Bruins, you get to learn from people who have brought the school championships. And, if you’re trying to beat UCLA, there’s no better accomplishment than saying you beat Inouye-Perez and Fernandez’s record-breaking team.

“[Fernandez is] going to push you, and it might be uncomfortable, but dang it, you have no choice but to get better,” Ball-Malone said. “If you can get through her, you can get through anybody, and I’m going to learn from that so I can bring that to this program.”

OKLAHOMA CITY — Jordan Woolery nearly saved UCLA’s season Sunday night at the Women’s College World Series. She lined a single up the middle in the ninth inning off former teammate Kaitlyn Terry to score Rylee Slimp from second base and pull the Bruins within a run of Texas Tech.

But Red Raiders ace NiJaree Canady replaced Terry in the circle and retired the final two batters, stranding Megan Grant at second in UCLA’s 8-7 season-ending loss.

Woolery, the nation’s RBIs leader, homered twice and drove in five runs for UCLA (53-10), which got nine innings and 181 pitches from workhorse Taylor Tinsley.

The Bruins struggled to gain traction against Terry, who joined Texas Tech following last season’s exit from the WCWS. Terry replaced Canady in the third inning and retired 10 of the first 11 batters she faced.

But in the seventh, UCLA scored three runs to force extra innings. Pinch-hitter Ramsey Suarez ignited the rally with a 270-foot home run to left field off Terry. Facing Canady, pinch-hitter Jazmine Leyva singled down the right-field line. Two batters later, Woolery blasted a 267-foot homer over the center-field wall to tie the score.

Despite the late heroics, it wasn’t enough to keep UCLA’s season alive. Texas Tech (59-8) will play Alabama (56-7) Monday at 4 p.m. PT.

OKLAHOMA CITY — UCLA, facing elimination in the Women’s College World Series on Friday night, erupted for nine runs in the second inning against Arkansas and rolled to an 11-0 win in five innings that ended the Razorbacks’ first appearance on college softball’s biggest stage.

The Bruins (53-9) got home runs in the inning from Aleena Garcia, Soo-Jin Berry and Megan Grant — her 42nd of the season and the 91st of her career, a program record. Kaniya Bragg homered to right field in the top of the fifth to make it 11-0.

The Razorbacks (47-13) were limited to three hits in five innings by UCLA starter Taylor Tinsley.

UCLA will play another elimination game at 4 p.m. PT Sunday when the Bruins face either Texas Tech, the defending national runner-up, or Tennessee.

Arkansas starter Payton Burnham didn’t last long against UCLA’s powerful lineup.

Garcia homered to lead off the second. Burnham hit Bragg with a pitch, Alexis Ramirez singled, and Berry launched a homer to left field to make it 4-0.

Saylor Timmerman replaced Burnham and walked Jolyna Lamar and Rylee Slimp before Grant crushed a 260-foot no-doubter that hit a metal fence beyond the wall in left-center field.

Designated hitter Jacob Johnson hit a go-ahead homer in the ninth inning off Easton Hawk to lift Saint Mary’s to a stunning 3-2 win over top-seeded UCLA in the Los Angeles Regional opener Friday afternoon at Jackie Robinson Stadium.

Johnson’s second solo home run of the game initially only appeared to be a pop-up near the warning track. But as the stadium fell silent, the ball kept sailing — and it eventually cleared the wall over leaping Bruins right fielder Jarrod Hocking.

Saint Mary’s reliever Cam Staton earned the win after getting UCLA shortstop Roch Cholowsky, the expected No. 1 pick in the 2026 MLB draft, to pop out with a runner on first. The right-handed Hawk took the loss.

It marked the first loss by a national No. 1 seed in an NCAA regional opener since the current format was established in 1999.

Hawk previously had given up just three homers on the season and hadn’t surrendered one since March 1 against Mississippi State. Johnson, who went deep to start the day’s scoring in the fourth, recorded his second two-homer game of the season.

UCLA’s Jarrod Hocking strikes out to end eighth inning during a 3-2 loss to Saint Mary’s in the NCAA regionals on Friday.

(Scott Strazzante / For The Times)

Saint Mary’s (35-25) will face the winner of Virginia Tech (2) vs. Cal Poly (3) — who play Friday night — in the winner’s bracket on Saturday at 6 p.m. PDT; UCLA (51-7) will face the loser in the elimination bracket Saturday at 1 p.m.

Friday’s starters, UCLA’s Wylan Moss and Saint Mary’s John Damozonio, dueled. Moss surrendered three hits and one run through five innings, and Damozonio gave up five hits and two runs through seven.

But it was Johnson and the Gaels who survived in the end.

UCLA loses to Alabama

Megan Grant hit her 41st home run of the season to tie a UCLA career record Thursday night, but top-seeded Alabama rallied behind a five-run surge to beat the eighth-seeded Bruins 6-3 on opening day at the Women’s College World Series.

UCLA starter Taylor Tinsley took a 3-1 lead into the fifth inning but walked leadoff batter Jena Young then surrendered a 249-foot home run to Alexis Pupillo two batters later to tie the score.

In the sixth, Alabama’s Kristen White beat out a grounder to third and Young dropped a bloop single to left, setting the stage for Brooke Wells, who drove a pitch from Tinsley 239 feet to center field to give the Crimson Tide the lead.

The Bruins (52-9) will have to beat the winner of the game between Arkansas and Nebraska on Friday night to avoid elimination.

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Angels rout the Tigers

Grayson Rodriguez pitched five strong innings as the Angels beat the Detroit Tigers 7-1 on Thursday for their fifth victory in six games.

The Angels won back-to-back series for the first time this season, sweeping Texas at home before winning two of three in Detroit.

Detroit has gone 4-18 since May 4, losing seven straight series.

Rodriguez (2-1) allowed one run on two hits and two walks in five innings. He struck out five.

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Angels box score

MLB standings

MLB team owners propose a salary cap

From Bill Shaikin: They had balloons, baseball caps and a splashy video. They even had Dusty Baker, because any day with Dusty Baker is a good day.

And, as a campaign called “The Sacramento Pitch” unveiled its plan to lure a Major League Baseball expansion team to the state capital, the mayor made his pitch a blunt one.

“This region has earned its place in the majors,” Sacramento Mayor Kevin McCarty said Thursday. “And, frankly, MLB could use Sacramento.”

We’ll see. But, as McCarty and other dignitaries rallied in Sacramento, a more important gathering was happening in New York, at which MLB owners formally proposed the salary cap players have vowed to resist.

Whether owners can get a cap — either by persuasion through the fall and winter, or more likely by canceling games next spring so players go unpaid — remains to be seen. For Sacramento and the other American and Canadian cities pursuing two expansion teams, the outcome of collective bargaining could determine the fee MLB would charge for each one.

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Mason Edwards leads USC to College Baseball World Series

From Joaquin Ruiz: Mason Edwards has first-round hype ahead of July’s 2026 MLB draft for a reason.

USC’s ace takes the mound like a boxer enters the ring, eager to land blow after blow. And as the Trojans (43-15) open the NCAA tournament in College Station, Texas, at 6 p.m. PDT Friday (ESPNU), the southpaw packs a serious punch. He carries a nation-leading 160 strikeouts and the second-best 1.43 ERA.

“They’re getting a competitor,” Edwards said of what people can expect when he pitches. “There have been a lot of situations where I’ve had to battle and fight adversity. So, I think you’ll see a good fight when I toe the rubber. I’m not going to shy away from any type of competition.”

If anything, the competition probably shies away from Edwards.

Named the Big Ten 2026 Pitcher of the Year after stacking a record 113 strikeouts in conference play, Edwards is integral to what has been USC’s best team since the early 2000s.

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Can UCLA win the College Baseball World Series?

From Joaquin Ruiz: No. 1 UCLA’s quest for the second baseall national title in school history starts Friday.

The Bruins (51-6, 28-2 Big Ten) enter the NCAA tournament as the top overall seed and host against Saint Mary’s (34-25, 15-12 West Coast) to begin the Los Angeles Regional at Jackie Robinson Stadium.

After winning its first Big Ten tournament championship in program history on Sunday, UCLA is focused on continuing its dominance and embracing the target on its back as a College World Series favorite.

“We’ll see what happens, but I think just staying with us and not trying to do too much and just stay present,” UCLA junior outfielder Payton Brennan said. “That’s the main thing — and staying with each other.”

Their record and conference dominance aside, the Bruins sit atop several statistical categories and are intimidating across the diamond.

But UCLA coach John Savage said UCLA isn’t looking past its regional foes — Saint Mary’s, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Virginia Tech.

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This day in sports history

1946 — Two-year-old fillies Chakoora and Uleta become the first thoroughbreds to complete a transcontinental flight. They’re flown from New York to Inglewood by the American Air Express Corp., a 2,446-mile trip that lasts 20 hours due to bad weather.

1968 — European Cup Final, Wembley Stadium, London: Bobby Charlton scores twice as Manchester United beats Benfica, 4-1; first English club to win the trophy.

1971 — Al Unser wins his second straight Indianapolis 500 with a record mark of 157.735 mph and finishes 22 seconds ahead of Peter Revson. The pace car, ridden by Eldon Palmer, crashes into the portable bleachers and injures 20 people.

1977 — A.J. Foyt becomes the first driver to win four Indianapolis 500s and Janet Guthrie becomes the first woman in the race. Guthrie is forced to drop out after 27 laps with mechanical problems.

1977 — Australian Sue Prell first female golfer to hit consecutive holes-in one; 13th and 14th holes at Chatswood Golf Club, Sydney.

1980 — Larry Bird beats out Magic Johnson for NBA rookie of year.

1983 — After three second-place finishes, Tom Sneva wins the Indianapolis 500 by 11 seconds over three-time champion Al Unser.

1985 — 29th European Cup: Juventus beats Liverpool 1-0 at Brussels.

1988 — Rick Mears overcomes an early one-lap deficit, then overpowers the rest of the field on the way to his third Indianapolis 500 victory. Mears gives team-owner Roger Penske an unprecedented seventh victory and fourth in five years.

1990 — Stefan Edberg and Boris Becker, the top two seeds, are bounced in the first round of the French Open by two European teenagers, the first time the top two men’s seeds are eliminated in the first round of a Grand Slam tournament. Edberg is swept easily in straight sets by 19-year-old Sergi Bruguera of Spain, and Becker loses to 18-year-old Yugoslav Goran Ivanisevic.

1991 — 35th European Cup: Red Star Belgrade beats Marseille (0-0, 5-3 on penalties) at Bari.

1993 — Wayne Gretzky’s overtime goal gives the Kings a 5-4 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs in the Western Conference finals. The Kings become the first NHL team to play the full 21 games in the first three rounds.

1998 — Eighteen-year-old Marat Safin, ranked 116th in the world and playing in his first Grand Slam tournament, beats defending champion Gustavo Kuerten, 3-6, 7-6 (7-5), 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 in the second round of the French Open.

2005 — Dan Wheldon wins the Indianapolis 500 when Danica Patrick’s electrifying run falls short. Patrick is the first woman to lead at Indy, getting out front three separate times for a total of 19 laps. But Wheldon passes her with seven of the 200 laps to go and easily holds on.

2006 — Rafael Nadal passes Guillermo Vilas as the King of the clay courts and begins his pursuit of a second successive French Open trophy. Nadal earns his 54th consecutive win on clay, breaking the Open era record he shared with Vilas by beating Robin Soderling in straight sets in the first round at Roland Garros.

2011 — JR Hildebrand, one turn from winning the Indianapolis 500, skids high into the wall on the final turn and Dan Wheldon drives past to claim an improbable second Indy 500 win in his first race of the year.

2011 — Roger Federer sets another record by reaching the French Open quarterfinals, and Novak Djokovic closes in on a pair of his own. Federer extends his quarterfinal streak at major tournaments to 28 with a 6-3, 6-2, 7-5 victory over Stanislas Wawrinka. Djokovic maintains his perfect season to 41-0 and stretches his overall winning streak to 43 matches by beating Richard Gasquet of France 6-4, 6-4, 6-2.

2012 — Serena Williams loses in the first round of a major tournament for the first time, falling to Virginie Razzano of France 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-3 at the French Open. Williams enters the day with a 46-0 record in first-round matches at Grand Slam tournaments.

2016 — Alexander Rossi wins the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500.

2017 — Tiger Woods is arrested and charged with driving under the influence in Jupiter, Fla.

2021 — UEFA Champions League Final, Porto: Kai Havertz scores just before halftime to give Chelsea a 1-0 win over Manchester City in an all-English final; Blues’ second CL title.

Compiled by the Associated Press

This day in baseball history

1916 — Christy Mathewson defeated the Boston Braves 3-0 for the New York Giants’ 17th consecutive road win.

1922 — The U.S. Supreme Court ruled organized baseball was primarily a sport and not a business, and therefore not subject to antitrust laws and interstate commerce regulations. The suit had been brought by the Federal League’s Baltimore franchise.

1928 — Bill Terry hit for the cycle to lead the New York Giants to a 12-5 win over Brooklyn at Ebbets Field. Terry became the first player in major league history to include a grand slam as part of the cycle.

1942 — New York’s Lefty Gomez, self-described as the worst-hitting pitcher in baseball, banged out four hits while pitching a 16-1 four-hitter against Washington.

1956 — Dale Long went hitless for the Pirates, ending his major league record streak of home runs in eight consecutive games. The Brooklyn Dodgers beat Pittsburgh, 10-1.

1965 — Philadelphia’s Richie Allen hit a 529-foot home run over the roof of Connie Mack Stadium off Chicago’s Larry Jackson in the Phillies’ 4-2 victory.

1976 — Houston’s Joe Niekro was the winning pitcher and hit a home run off his brother, Phil Niekro. The Astros beat the Atlanta Braves 4-1. It was the only home run hit by Joe in his 22-year major league career.

1990 — Oakland’s Rickey Henderson broke Ty Cobb’s 62-year-old American League stolen base record, but the Toronto Blue Jays still beat the Athletics 2-1. Henderson’s 893rd steal came in the sixth inning.

2000 — Oakland second baseman Randy Velarde turned the 10th unassisted triple play in regular-season history during a 4-1 loss to the New York Yankees. With runners on first and second in motion, Shane Spencer hit a line drive to Velarde who caught the ball, tagged out Jorge Posada (running from first) and stepped on second to beat Tino Martinez.

2002 — Roger Clemens recorded the 100th double-digit strikeout game of his career, fanning 11 in seven innings against Chicago. Nolan Ryan (215) and Randy Johnson (175) were the others to have 100 double-digit strikeout games.

2002 — In an article in Sports Illustrated former NL MVP Ken Caminiti stated that about 50% of current major league players used some form of steroids.

2003 — Colorado, behind Todd Helton’s three home runs and Ron Belliard’s five hits beat the visiting Dodgers 12-5. Helton added a single and drove in six runs.

2010 — Philadelphia’s Roy Halladay threw the 20th perfect game in major league history, beating the Florida Marlins 1-0. It was the first time in the modern era that there were a pair of perfect games in the same season. Halladay faced three Marlins pinch-hitters in the ninth. Mike Lamb led off with a long fly ball, Wes Helms struck out, and Ronny Paulino to hit a grounder to third for the 27th out. Halladay struck out 11 and went to either 3-1 or 3-2 counts seven times, twice in the game’s first three batters.

2013 — Chris Davis went 4 for 4 with two home runs, and the Baltimore Orioles overcame three homers by Ryan Zimmerman to beat the Washington Nationals 9-6.

2013 — Dioner Navarro had the first three-homer game of his career, connecting from both sides of the plate at Wrigley Field to lead the Chicago Cubs to a 9-3 win over the Chicago White Sox. Navarro drove in a career-high six runs and scored four times.

2014 — Diamondbacks pitcher Josh Collmenter faces the minimum 27 batters in spite of giving up three hits in a complete game shutout defeat of the Cincinnati Reds. The three Reds baserunners were erased on double plays.

2015 — Lewis-Clark State wins their 17th NAIA baseball title.

2021 — The Twins’ Josh Donaldson scored the two-millionth run in major league history.

2025 — Chris Sale becomes the fastest pitcher to reach 2,500 strikeouts, doing so in 2,026 innings, fewer than the 39 men who have preceded him to the mark.

Compiled by the Associated Press

Until next time…

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

Baseball players are superstitious — it comes with the territory.

But not even UCLA coach John Savage, who has coached the Bruins since 2004, has seen something that rivals pitcher Angel Cervantes and his mini toy dinosaur, Jerry.

A two-inch triceratops, Jerry sits behind the 6-foot-2 freshman every time the righty takes the mound, serving as a familiar — albeit tiny — face Cervantes can turn to for reassurance.

“[Cervantes] used the word childish,” Savage recalled. “And I kind of like that because that’s the first thing you think, like, ‘What the hell? Baby dinosaur? What are we doing?’ And so, he got a little chuckle out of it. He doesn’t take himself too serious, and I like that from a young guy. But it’s something that he loves and works off and, you know, good for him.”

Jerry took the world by storm as Cervantes, making his postseason debut Sunday, tossed five scoreless innings in UCLA’s 3-2 11-inning win over Oregon in the Big Ten championship game. The broadcast crew zoomed in on the dino, and the rest remains history.

Cervantes didn’t expect his mini dinosaur to be a hot topic throughout college baseball. The pitcher found it “crazy” to see himself and Jerry showered with love in social media posts shared by ESPN and MLB.

However, as the virality increases, Cervantes has been an open book about Jerry.

“Jerry, he’s a big part of my plan,” he said. “He just keeps me calm.”

The triceratops has been calming Cervantes since his senior year at Downey’s Warren High School.

In George Redfox’s photography class, Cervantes and his classmates were assigned to take pictures of mini dinosaurs on the ground at varying angles. With the longtime teacher’s approval, Cervantes and a friend kept a pair of dinosaurs; one was named Tom, and the other Jerry, inspired by the show Cervantes loved watching with his dad growing up.

Cervantes first placed Jerry behind him on the mound during a game at Angel Stadium and has made it routine ever since.

“I put my hand on my lid, I look down, and I close my eyes,” Cervantes said of his superstition. “And once I open my eyes, I look at Jerry, and that’s when I know it’s time to go. If I’m [ahead] 0-2, I like to slow myself down. I don’t want to think ahead. Or, after a first-pitch strike [or] the beginning of the inning, you know, whatever. Whenever I think the moment’s getting a little big, I want to slow things down.”

Some players pat their gloves. Others chew gum or spit seeds. But Cervantes? He just looks at his little pal.

UCLA pitcher Angel Cervantes holds his good luck toy dinosaur.

(Joaquin Ruiz / For The Times)

As Savage said, the arrangement is unique.

However, what works, works. And the Bruins, when they’re not worrying about stepping on Jerry or watching the tiny-but-mighty dino get obliterated by a grounder up the middle, are all for anything that will empower Cervantes to be his best.

“I remember seeing [Jerry] for the first time in the fall, and I just thought it was funny,” UCLA junior catcher Cashel Dugger said. “I think it’s just his thing, and it keeps him comfortable out there. And if he’s comfortable out there, then I think everybody else is good for it …”

Jerry didn’t just help Cervantes thrive in the biggest game of his life to help the Bruins earn their first Big Ten conference title.

Rather, the dino helped Cervantes evolve from an adapting freshman into a trustworthy arm — that enters the NCAA tournament with a 3.86 ERA with just one run given up over his last five outings — in a rotation that needed a boost, as right-handed ace Logan Reddemann has been out with arm soreness since mid-April.

“He was not ready, three [to] four months ago, to be a weekend starter,” Savage said of Cervantes, who the Pittsburgh Pirates selected with the No. 50 overall pick in the 2025 MLB draft. “In terms of Angel, it’s really been a fun progression. It’s really, I think, the epitome of development, of not rushing a guy with high expectations. I mean, he [was the] 50th pick … you would think [he’d] be plug-in-and-go. But in today’s world of college baseball, being barely 18 years old … he just wasn’t there yet, and he needed to fall.”

Jerry isn’t on UCLA’s roster and probably won’t be sized for championship rings any time soon.

But don’t get it twisted: there’s only one tiny dinosaur Cervantes looks to when he feels the heat, or for a lift when he falls. The two, quite literally, are inseparable.

“He’s in my backpack,” Cervantes said when asked where Jerry goes after games. “So, he’s still with me. I don’t want to keep him in my pocket — maybe I’ll grab my wallet, and he suddenly falls out. I’m always on top of where I keep him.”

Jerry has the trust of everyone in Westwood as UCLA begins its quest for a second national title in program history on Friday against Saint Mary’s.

The Bruins love him. The fans love him. Heck, even umpires can’t help but smile when met with the triceratops.

“Every time they do checks — like, they check my hands and glove — they’re always asking what’s in my pockets or hand, because before they do that, I put Jerry in the pocket. And I just put my hand out, and Jerry’s just right there. ‘Oh, OK, cool. Go get ‘em.’ So they’re always having a smile on their face.”

Cervantes and the Bruins still have a ways to go before they’re champions of the world. But if anything is certain, it’s that Jerry will be there every step of the way, whether on the mound with the freshman or in his backpack.

Oh, and if Cervantes ever gets to make that dream big-league appearance one day, he made it clear: He’d do everything he could to share the experience with Jerry.

“Someone said that if the batter ever gets mad and goes up to the pitcher, that Jerry will be right behind him,” Cervantes said of his favorite social media comment about his mini companion. “And that we should get a helmet for Jerry.”

Logan Reddemann of UCLA tied a school record with 18 strikeouts against Rutgers in an eight-inning stint earlier this season.

(Craig Weston)

Bruins’ right-handed ace Logan Reddemann will be unavailable for the Los Angeles Regional with the same throwing-arm soreness that has kept him off the mound since improving his record to 8-0 in a win over Minnesota on April 17.

“Logan looks like he’s still a week away,” Savage said. “Looks like he’s got one more bullpen [session] and [one] more live session if we can get there, to the super regional. But he will not be available this weekend. … I think he’s missed six or seven starts now. We’ve held up the fort since he’s left. Our guys have done a really, really good job.”

Reddemann posted a 2.87 ERA with 89 strikeouts in the 59 2/3 innings he pitched in 2026.

Savage praised right-handed starters Wylan Moss, who will start Friday, and Angel Cervantes for stepping in for Reddemann throughout the year.

Moss, a sophomore, has a 5-1 record and the Bruins have won all but one of his six starts since Reddemann went down. Cervantes, meanwhile, has heated up as he grows comfortable as a freshman, making waves for his start against Oregon in UCLA’s Big Ten championship win on Sunday.

“Wylan’s kind of taking the ball on Fridays,” Savage said. “Clearly, he’s had some really good outings. … And then Angel, you know, clearly filled in for [right-handed pitcher Landon Stump]. Moved Landon to the bullpen, I think that was a really good move. Stump [has] done really, really good out of the bullpen, and Angel looks like a future star as a starter.”

A Cervantes video has gone viral for bringing a mini dinosaur named Jerry with him to the mound every time he pitches. He said glancing at the the dinosaur next to him in the dirt helps keep him calm and focused.

UCLA also will be relying on other arms, such as right-handed starter Michael Barnett, to stay afloat in Reddemann’s absence.

UCLA softball coach Kelly Inouye-Perez expected sophomore Rylee Slimp to deliver under pressure.

Slimp earned first-team all-Big Ten honors as the leadoff hitter for a Bruins team that features slugging stars Megan Grant and Jordan Woolery. She leads a group of underclassmen who helped send UCLA to the Women’s College World Series.

“I have seen Rylee Slimp just play big from travel ball to big moments in high school, and she came here to play on this big stage,” Inouye-Perez said. “I think her biggest asset, besides the fact that she can hit a home run, is that she can hit to all areas of the field, and she has such a good eye.

“I think she wanted to be in this position this year. She wanted to be the leadoff and be an impact player.”

The Austin, Texas, native is hitting .428 with 16 home runs, 56 RBIs, and 94 runs. Slimp broke Natasha Watley’s UCLA single-season runs record of 75, set in 2001, with 94 runs so far this season.

The following interview with Slimp ahead of the Bruins’ WCWS opener against No. 1 seed Alabama on Thursday has been edited for length and clarity.

How do you feel about being recognized by national media, including ESPN, for your role in UCLA’s a lineup?

Slimp: It’s surreal. We’ve broken records and accomplished so much as an offense this year. I’m grateful to be the leadoff and for all of the publicity we’re receiving.

How did you get started playing softball?

Slimp: I played T-ball. My dad gave me lessons and stuff on hitting when I was four. My dad was the one who taught me everything from a young age and kind of grew with me through the sport, and as I got older.

What inspired you to continue to work at softball so that you can compete at UCLA?

Slimp: It was this dream I had when I was a little girl, just starting off playing. I always looked up to the girls playing in the College World Series, and I knew that was a dream of mine very early on.

What was your first contact with the UCLA coaching staff while you were in high school and how did that impact your decision to join the Bruins?

Slimp: Coach Lisa [Fernandez] saw me play at a tournament the summer of my sophomore year. It was right before Sept. 1st and all of that big recruiting stuff. So it happened pretty late in the process with UCLA for me. Coach Lisa saw me play a tournament, and then a few days later, I was out of camp and it kind of took off after that. … I canceled all the other [visits] that I had, and I was like, ‘Oh, I know that this is the place for me, like, I don’t want to be anywhere else.’

What has helped the younger players on this year’s team stay calm under pressure?

Slimp: We do have a new team. We have 10 returners and 10 new Bruins. So we are pretty young as a team. … I think the upperclassmen like Taylor [Tinsley] and Megan [Grant], the seniors, do a good job of sharing their wisdom and helping us grow.

What is something they have taught you?

Slimp: I think, honestly, that the game isn’t as deep as we make it. I think sometimes, as underclassmen, we can make it the end of the world if we go 0 for 3 in a game or we have a bad outing. … The game is meant to be fun, and you’re supposed to enjoy it.

What’s the story behind the Michael Jackson glove the team has been passing around the dugout and featuring on social media?

Slimp: We went and saw the [Michael Jackson] movie as a team. I think 12 of us went, something like that, and since then we’ve just been obsessed with all things Michael Jackson. … We got the gloves. We are doing the second base [celebrations.] We are all things Michael Jackson right now after that movie.

Who bought the glove?

Slimp: That’s a good question because I actually don’t know the answer. I think most of our props and stuff just pop up. I think the [stress ball in the shape of] butter started with [Tinsley] because she’s really into stress balls. … But the home run boxing gloves came from Coach Lisa [Fernandez] and her boxing analogy.

We have a team motto that we’re like boxers. … That’s been the vibe and motto of this team this year to symbolize that. … One of the girl’s sisters bedazzled them, so they are wearing bedazzled boxing gloves that we put around our necks, whoever hits a home run.

Being from Texas, do you have an opinion on what’s better — Whataburger or In-n-Out?

Slimp: I need to be careful how I answer this question because I need to know my audience here, but y’all take your In-N-Out very seriously. I do have to say, I do like In-N-Out more.

What about Texas tacos versus Los Angeles tacos?

Slimp: Oh, yeah, I can talk tacos. The tacos in Texas are definitely better because we have flour tortillas, and apparently, flour tortillas aren’t a thing in California.

What is your go-to taco?

Slimp: I love steak fajita with flour tortilla, of course, cheese, and guac. And honestly, that’s it. I’m pretty simple.

May 27 (UPI) — Federal prosecutors are suing the University of California, alleging civil rights violations were committed in connection with pro-Palestinian campus protests, the latest lawsuit by the Trump administration, which has targeted universities over issues from antisemitism to their hiring practices.

The Trump administration has taken dozens of actions against higher education institutions, including investigations, lawsuits and funding freezes, in what critics describe as an effort to crack down on left-leaning ideology in public and private spaces.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in the Western District of California, focuses on the encampment erected on the University of California, Los Angeles, campus in April 2024 as pro-Palestinian protests erupted across U.S. universities against Israel’s war in Gaza as students sought to pressure their schools to divest from Israel.

Federal prosecutors allege the school failed to protect its Jewish and Israeli students through its inaction concerning the encampment, which was erected April 25, 2024, and torn down May 2, 2024, when the school permitted police to clear the campus of protesters.

“Universities have an obligation to maintain safe and inclusive campuses for all students,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli of the Central District of California said in a statement.

“Universities that violate our nation’s civil rights laws by repeatedly failing to shield Jewish students from antisemitism will be held accountable.”

The lawsuit is similar to the one federal prosecutors filed against UCLA in February, accusing the institution of creating a hostile work environment for Israeli and Jewish faculty and staff over its inaction with regard to the encampment.

UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk on Tuesday rejected the accusations.

“Let me be direct: The suggestion that UCLA has been passive in the face of antisemitism is simply wrong. Combating antisemitism is a moral imperative — one rooted, for me, in personal history that makes indifference unthinkable,” he said in a statement.

Frenk highlighted a series of actions the school has taken over the past year, from recruiting an associate vice chancellor for campus and community safety to reorganizing its civil rights office, as proof of the school’s commitment to stand against antisemitism.

The Justice Department is seeking a court declaration that UCLA unlawfully discriminated against Jewish and Israeli students, an order forcing it to institute a series of changes and a declaration that the federal government does not need to make additional grant payments to the university.

Earlier this month, the Justice Department announced the results of an investigation into UCLA’s medical school admissions process, saying it discriminated by race to favor Black and Hispanic applicants.

Critics have accused the Trump administration of using the Justice Department to crack down on disfavored speech and ideology.

In April 2025, more than 200 college and university leaders issued a joint statement condemning the actions of the Trump administration targeting higher education institutions as “unprecedented government overreach and political interference.”

The UCLA comeback kings are Big Ten tournament champions.

A clutch hit by Aidan Espinoza and two reviews fueled the No. 1 Bruins’ rally for a dramatic 3-2 win over Oregon in 11 innings in the Big Ten tournament title game Sunday in Omaha, Neb.

UCLA rallied for wins during all three of its Big Ten tournament games and has earned 28 comeback wins this season.

“I’m just glad we won,” UCLA junior Mulivai Levu said during a postgame interview on the Big Ten Network. “It was a team effort today. Everyone did their job. Once again, we came from behind and did it.”

The Bruins trailed Oregon 2-1 with two outs in the bottom of the ninth when Espinoza tied the game with a single. The Bruins could not tack on another run, and the contest moved to extra innings.

In the bottom of the 11th, UCLA loaded the bases with no outs after an official review determined that Roman Martin was narrowly safe at third base following a bunt.

Oregon closer Devin Bell got Cashel Dugger and Espinoza to strike out swinging. Then the winning run advanced after the umpire ruled Phoenix Call was hit by Bell’s pitch. After a lengthy review, the call on the field was upheld, and UCLA celebrated the program’s first Big Ten tournament title.

“Just a lot of fight,” UCLA coach John Savage said on the Big Ten Network when asked about the Bruins’ penchant for comeback wins. “They certainly believe in one another. We’ve done it all season long. Good teams keep getting better.

”… You might see a couple of Big Ten teams back here in a couple of weeks.”

Will Gasparino was ejected in the fourth inning for malicious contact after he was caught in a rundown and ran over an Oregon player ready to tag him out at third base.

Oregon challenged the on-field ruling that Gasparino was simply out on the play. After a review, Gasparino was ejected and will miss UCLA’s NCAA regional opener.

The Bruins, the top-ranked team in the country, will learn their NCAA tournament seeding and regional matchup Monday morning.

The power of power, you know?

The power of friendship, the power of persuasion. Power of positive thinking, power at the plate.

Megan Grant’s power.

If there’s one thing in American sports that’s going to get people to sit up, lean forward and engage, it’s the home run. We all dig the long ball.

If anything can get someone to run home and turn on a softball game, it’s a big-time slugger from a big-time school mashing homers like nobody before.

Heard about Grant? She’s the UCLA softball player who’s hit an NCAA-record 40 home runs (so far) this season.

UCLA senior Megan Grant leans over and holds her helmet between pitches during a super regional game against UCF on Friday at Easton Stadium.

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

Forty! In 147 at-bats! That’s a home run every 3.68 at-bats!

If you’re wondering, Mark McGwire hit a home run every 7.3 at-bats in 1998, the year he finished with 70. And Barry Bonds went deep every 6.52 at-bats in 2001, when he hit his MLB-record 73 home runs.

Whenever she gets asked about her historic home runs, the red-hot, red-haired hitter is like, shucks: “I mean, it’s incredible,” she said. “I’m just honestly blessed to be able to say the number 40. But, yeah, that’s all I can say.”

She just wants to be thought of as a hard worker and a good teammate. But what Grant is going to be remembered for most is as the founding member of softball’s 40-home run club.

Her 40th home run came in her 58th game this season and on her seventh career grand slam — Grant Slam? — in the Bruins’ NCAA regional final victory over South Carolina last weekend.

Forty, a round number of round-trippers with a ring to it. And a sweet echo coming so soon after the Bruins women’s basketball team won its first NCAA championship, history to which Grant also contributed as a reserve before softball beckoned.

Side quest completed, the left-handed-hitting senior stepped back into the box to help the Bruins chase a 13th championship on the softball field.

Grant is soaking up the experience, and encouraging her younger teammates to, too: “‘Enjoy this, it’s so rare to be here’ … and, ‘Hey, we can do this, we can do it together.’”

A .469 hitter, she leads the nation in slugging percentage (1.333), on-base percentage (.650) and OPS (1.983). She bats second in UCLA’s NCAA record-breaking lineup that shattered Oklahoma’s 25-year-old previous record of 160 home runs. UCLA hit seven home runs during two super regional wins against Central Florida this weekend to push that record to 200.

With a 9-1 win Friday and a 14-4 victory Saturday, the Bruins advanced to the Women’s College World Series for the 34th time and for the third time in Grant’s astounding tenure.

UCLA senior Megan Grant (43) high-fives teammates during a win over UCF Friday at Easton Stadium.

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

Tip your helmet and toss Grant her bouquets — flower power — because there she is popping up on ESPN’s “SportsCenter” and on the MLB Network. One of three finalists for the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year award, she’s got guys discussing her exploits on a dad pod otherwise dedicated to NBA takes. Fans dressed up as chefs as a tribute to her nickname, “Chef Megan.”

Star power, power broker. Grant is a lift-all-boats attraction for a sport that’s been steadily carving out space in the public consciousness.

All over the country, college softball teams have been breaking attendance records. And ratings are up, up, up; ESPN said this has been its most-watched college softball regular season since 2009, with games averaging 292,000 viewers. The MLB-backed Athletes Unlimited Softball League is entering Season 2; Grant was drafted No. 4 overall by the Portland Cascade.

“People will pay to see her play,” said Lisa Fernandez, UCLA softball legend and associate head coach.

Fernandez also is the general manager of the AUSL’s Utah Talons, for whom UCLA’s other senior slugger Jordan Woolery will play this summer.

The Bruins imported the latest in a lineage of Bay Area dynamic duos. The Oakland Athletics had the Bash Brothers, Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire; the Golden State Warriors gave us the Splash Brothers, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson. And now UCLA has Walnut Creek’s Woolery and Grant, of San Bruno — the Bruin Bombers.

They’re the first teammates in NCAA history to each hit 30-plus homers in the same season, with 74 between them.

And, yes, chefs! Like Curry before her, Grant is cookin’ the competition, breaking the 31-year-old NCAA single-season home run record with No. 38 on May 9 against Nebraska.

Included among the record wreckage she’s leaving in her wake: Stacey Nuveman’s UCLA single-season record of 31 homers. For her career, Grant needs only one more to tie Nuveman’s Bruins record of 90.

But Grant’s got to get a pitch to hit first. After UCF walked her six times in two games, she has 74 walks this season and 69 base hits. She also has 13 hit by pitches.

“It’s very similar to Barry Bonds, right?” Fernandez said. “It’s either a walk or a home run. Like, you pick.”

The tale of the tape measure behind Grant’s greatness is the down-to-the inch precision of her preparation. The Mamba-esque magic is in the embracing behind-the-scenes monotony, powering through it.

“She was the hardest worker, always working. Never enough,” said Ray McDonald, Grant’s coach at the San Mateo-based Warrior Softball Academy since she was that kid with an electric, bat-busting swing. “It was eating and sleeping, hitting, and you know, shower. The essentials.”

“When we recruited her, Ray, he was like, ‘Coach, you better be ready to work,’” said Fernandez. “And I’m like, ‘Oh, I know how to work.’ And [then] I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, now I understand how people must have felt when I played.’

“There is an aspect of this game that people don’t realize unless you are in it. To be great, there’s a — for lack of a better word — monotony to the process. Can you master the same move over and over again? And she’s committed to it. To her drills, to the process, to her routine, all of it. There’s a lot of people who are committed to it when they’re not doing well: ‘Oh, got to get back to my drills.’ She has been committed to that process from the day she stepped on campus.”

The process includes working on her mind. That deep, deep breath before every deep, deep home run is a way to stay centered. To stay in the moment — and it is a moment.

For softball. For UCLA. For Grant, who, with all this power and responsibility, is hitting it out of the park.

UCLA captured its ticket to the Women’s College World Series, winning a best-of-three super regional over Central Florida with a 14-4 victory Saturday night at Easton Stadium. The Bruins also set a new NCAA record for WCWS appearances, reaching the double-elimination tournament in Oklahoma City 34 times.

Facing elimination, UCF threw five total pitchers at the Bruins’ lineup. None could silence UCLA’s bats.

While Megan Grant had another quiet night, working three walks, her presence in the box was enough to drive in a run. The right fielder worked a full count in the third inning. With the bases loaded, she hit a sac-fly to far right field. Only feet separated her from setting a new program career home-run record. The accolade still belongs to Stacey Nuveman (90 home runs).

A batter later, shortstop Aleena Garcia hit an RBI-single that bounced off the top of Evan’s glove to give UCLA the lead. Catcher Alexis Ramirez added a run to the momentum an inning later when she homered over the left field wall.

Meanwhile UCF’s starter Tori Payne consistently worked from behind the count and walked five batters. The righty’s pitch count topped 92 by the fifth inning. UCF coach Cindy Ball-Malone pulled Payne when she loaded the bases and gave up a run by hitting a pitcher.

Reliever Lena Elkins couldn’t work out of the jam without run damage. Ramirez doubled down the left field line, scoring two. The Bruins left two on base.

While UCLA didn’t fall behind after tying the score in the third inning, UCF challenged the Bruins’ ace Taylor Tinsley and the defense more than on Friday.

In the first, Tinsley left one bad pitch too far into the strike zone, and the Knights’ shortstop Aubrey Evans sent the ball flying over the center field wall. Tinsley then took a deep breath and continued. She struck out the next batter, and got a quick groundout to third base. When Tinsley ended the inning on a swinging strikeout, she ripped off her mask and screamed as her teammates poured out the dugout to give her high fives.

Tinsley held the Knights hitless until the fourth inning, where she gave up three singles. Kaniya Bragg saved the Bruins from any opposing runs when she trapped Sierra Humphreys’ single in the clay before it could reach the grass.

While Tinsley had struggled to find the zone that inning, she stranded the runners, striking out one batter and eliciting a groundout to short.

Her struggles to find the zone reappeared in the fifth, though she wasn’t the only one facing challenges. With two runners on the base, Ramirez tried to throw out a runner stealing second, but the ball slipped away from Bragg and trickled into the outfield grass. One runner scored and another advanced to third, later scoring on a foul out to left field.

Despite having two outs, Tinsley gave up two singles and an equal number of walks, loading the bases and giving up another run. Central Florida’s Coco Jaimes flew out to left to end the inning, but the Knights had scored three to close UCLA’s lead to 6-4.

UCF couldn’t enjoy the beginnings of a comeback for long. Garcia smashed a three-run homer over the right field wall in the sixth inning. Woolery tacked on an extra run on an RBI-double in the seventh and Garcia put the final nail in the coffin when she hit another three-run homer to nearly the same spot. Garcia’s seven RBIs are the most in a single game in program history. Bre Alejandre hit the final home run of the night, extending the Bruins’ single-season NCAA-record setting home run total to 200. With no one left to pitch, Ball-Malone put Payne back on the mound and she finished the game for the Knights.

Tinsley finished the game with 11 strikeouts, four earned runs, three walks and nine hits, marking her 24th complete game of the season and 32nd victory.

UCLA will play Alabama in the first game of the WCWS on Thursday.

Mulivai Levu helped UCLA remain the comeback kings of college baseball, hitting a walk-off, three-run home run to seal a 7-5 win over rival USC on Saturday and a spot in the Big Ten tournament championship game.

It was No. 1 seed UCLA’s 27th comeback win of the season and the second consecutive game Levu’s hit sealed a victory during the Big Ten tournament played in Omaha, Neb.

On Saturday night, Levu hit a walk-off sacrifice fly to seal UCLA’s comeback 4-3 win over Purdue in the conference tournament quarterfinals.

UCLA improved to 50-6, a record that Levu said gives the team confidence it will find a way to win.

“It’s the power of friendship right there. We’re all well connected,” Levu said during an interview Saturday on the Big Ten Network. “… We just don’t give up. We’re never out of it, we’re never doubting ourselves. We know what kind of lineup we’ve got, we’ve just got to use it.”

USC’s Augie Lopez hit a double and the rest of the Trojans were active early, building a 3-0 lead in the third inning. Levu hit an RBI single in the bottom of the third to cut the deficit. Dominic Cadiz had an RBI single in the fourth before pitchers held both teams scoreless in the fifth and sixth innings.

Dean West hit a two-run home run in the seventh to give UCLA its first lead at 4-3, and both teams were scoreless in the eighth.

In the ninth, Adrian Lopez and Augie Lopez managed to score runs for USC, taking a 5-4 lead. Top Trojans reliever Adam Troy got No. 1 MLB draft prospect Roch Cholowsky to fly out.

Then Levu entered the batter’s box with two outs and hit the home run that sent USC (43-15) back to Los Angeles for a break before the NCAA tournament brackets are revealed Sunday night.

“They’re rivals on the field, but those are our boys off the field,” Levu said of the Trojans. “They’re good guys and they’re good team. We’ll probably see them again later on in the playoff run. Props to them, it was a great game, they made it very interesting. I’m just glad we won.”

Beware the Bruins Bombers.

UCLA claimed the first of a best-of-three super regional over Central Florida with a 9-1 run-rule win Friday at Easton Stadium, putting the Bruins one win away from reaching the Women’s College World Series.

Freshman infielder Bri Alejandre squared up and smashed a home run over the center-field wall to give UCLA the lead in the second inning. She tied the Big Ten freshman home-run record with her 23rd of the season.

“You don’t want this heat,” one fan yelled from behind home plate. The Bruins, though, were just getting started.

UCF struggled to find answers to match UCLA’s offensive firepower. Three Knights pitchers tried in vain as the Bruins diced up the diamond even though UCF walked UCLA and NCAA home-run leader Megan Grant three times.

Ava Stuewe ended her night in the fourth inning after she walked one Bruin and hit another. But her replacement, sophomore Isabella Vega, couldn’t find her footing, either.

UCLA strung together a sacrifice bunt and an RBI-ground out to score one run. Ramsey Suarez sliced a double down the left-field line as the ball landed less than a foot into fair territory.

Second baseman Kaniya Bragg’s three-run home run put UCLA up by five in the fifth inning. And Rylee Slimp ended the game with a three-run homer.

Yet, UCLA wasn’t perfect. The Bruins left the bases loaded when UCF’s Sierra Humphreys made a diving catch to end the fourth.

The Knights clawed back a run when Humphrey, the first batter of the fifth inning, homered to left. The hit was a small smudge on Bruins ace Taylor Tinsley’s line, finishing with two strikeouts and three hits across the five innings.

She looked shaky earlier in the game when she worked herself into a 3-2 count during the Knights’ first at-bat of the super regionals. As she took a moment to breathe, staring out at the blue wall, center fielder Jolyna Lamar nodded her head three times.

Tinsley then pitched three hitless innings before UCF’s Aubrey Evans doubled off to right in the fourth. Evans ran to third on a wild pitch, but Tinsley worked out of the jam with a groundout that she fielded herself and a lineout to Garcia at shortstop.

UCLA and UCF will play Game 2 Saturday at 7 p.m. and the game will air on ESPN. If the Bruins win, they advance to the WCWS. If they lose, the teams play again Sunday for the WCWS bid.

Soo-Jin Berry is grateful her name has inspired fans from the Korean community to connect with her.

“For me, it’s just nice that I can represent something so much bigger than softball,” Berry said with a raspy voice after cheering on her UCLA teammates during the Bruins’ NCAA regional wins.

“My name is Korean, so I have a lot of Korean fans that will walk up to me, and they’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, are you Korean? I am too!’”

Berry thrived at Iowa as one of the Big Ten’s most potent hitters, but she chose to end her college career at UCLA even though it meant taking on a smaller role with drastically reduced playing time. Now she is a reliable option as UCLA faces Central Florida in the super regional round, a three-game series that begins at 6 p.m. Friday at the Bruins’ Easton Stadium. The game will air on ESPNU.

UCLAs’ Soo-Jin Berry celebrates hitting a home run against California Baptist on May 15.

(John McCoy / Ap Photo/john Mccoy)

Berry said she joked with her family that UCLA called her as she considered leaving Iowa for other schools before she ever met with the Bruins. Then associate head coach Lisa Fernandez emailed Berry. Bruins head coach Kelly Inouye-Perez then called Berry and they had a two-hour conversation.

“We talked about my life experience in Iowa, and then I kind of knew from the beginning what I wanted, so I made those desires clear to her,” Berry said. “I just want to grow. I just want to have some role on this team because it would mean so much to me. I feel like growing up, everyone’s dream is to go to UCLA, especially for softball.”

When she set foot on the UCLA campus during her recruiting visit, a quarter of the team greeted her, including her former high school teammate and Bruins hitting star Jordan Woolery.

“Jordan was the main person helping me on my visit,” Berry said. “We actually flew in together.”

Since transferring to UCLA, Berry said she learned that she could raise her standard of play while having the best time doing it.

While UCLA was a dream destination, Berry was the last Hawkeye to enter the transfer portal at the end of last season.

“Iowa is a very special place to me, so I don’t have any regrets going there. I loved my time there,” Berry said. “There were just differences between administration and coaching, which I didn’t agree with.”

Berry competed against the Bruins last season, helping Iowa beat UCLA by going 2-for-4 with 4 RBIs and two home runs — the second one in the fifth to help the Hawkeyes extend their lead to 7-4.

Inouye-Perez said after UCLA’s NCAA regional win over South Carolina on Saturday she hasn’t forgotten the game last season when Berry got the best of the Bruins.

“This girl straight beat us last year — she is a pure hitter,” Inouye-Perez said, with Berry sitting next to her.

In 52 games played at Iowa, Berry led the Hawkeyes in RBIs (33), slugging percentage (.589) and extra base hits (21) while recording a .335 batting average (53-158). Her nine home runs put her 10th in Hawkeyes single-season history.

Her on-plate numbers have dropped since joining UCLA’s roster, but her confidence is higher than ever thanks to the supportive techniques provided for Bruins.

“I feel in general I am more comfortable being myself and being more open with my teammates about certain things, so the journaling definitely does help because I can write ‘I belong here,’” Berry said.

She added that she has been able to simplify the situation by trusting the process the coaching staff has implemented for the team.

“Failure is part of the game, and it’s going to happen, and you can’t do anything to avoid it,” Berry said. “So just being OK with failing and knowing if I strike out at this at-bat, what can I change at the next one?”

Berry has accepted coming off the bench and playing any position needed.

“It comes down to the process we have during practice,” Berry said of getting playing time. “Coach Lisa [Fernandez], coach Mysha [Sataraka] and coach [Rob] Schweyer all have full confidence in me.”

When her time was called during the postseason, she contributed to the Bruins advancing as they push to win a national title.

In the regional round, she brought in runs. During the Bruins’ 12-11 walk-off win over California Baptist in the regional opener, Berry hit a three-run home run that helped UCLA take a 7-1 lead.

Berry said she wasn’t getting the outcomes she wanted earlier in the season, but being there for her team when her name was called is special.