College baseball notebook: It’s early, but UCLA showing lots of pop to go with pitching and defense

By Canadian Press on February 23, 2026.

When UCLA baseball has been at its best under John Savage, pitching and defense have been the Bruins’ calling cards.

All is well in those areas through two weeks. UCLA pitchers struck out 35 in a three-game weekend sweep of Big 12 preseason favorite TCU and the Bruins are one of two teams in the nation yet to commit an error.

It’s the national home run chart that prompts a double-take. Roch Cholowsky and Will Gasparino each have hit six and share the lead with Mississippi’s Judd Utermark. The Bruins are tied for fourth in team homers with 17 in seven games and among 12 teams averaging at least two per game.

“Early in the season,” Savage said in a text to The Associated Press on Monday.

Savage is right about that, and no one is predicting the Bruins will continue on a pace that would end with them hitting 136 in a 56-game regular season.

But the early homer output is notable. Since 2015, the Bruins have had double-digit homers through seven games just one other season, and they’ve had two or less at this point in three seasons.

Cholowsky, the projected No. 1 pick in the Major League Baseball amateur draft in July, went deep 23 times last season to become only the fourth UCLA player with 20 homers since the NCAA began toning down bats in 1999.

Gasparino is almost halfway to his total of 13 homers he hit at Texas last season, and five other players have one homer each.

The Bruins are well-positioned to surpass last year’s 78 homers, which were the most since the 2000 team hit 117.

In the polls

UCLA (6-1) and LSU (8-0) remain the top two teams in the D1Baseball.com and Baseball America polls. Texas (7-0) is No. 3 by D1Baseball and Mississippi State (8-0) is No. 3 by Baseball America.

UCLA will get tested again this week when it faces Tennessee, Texas A&M and Mississippi State at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.

Texas will go to Daikin Park in Houston to play a top-10 Coastal Carolina on Friday. Mississippi State plays Arizona State and Virginia Tech before facing the Bruins. LSU plays at home against Dartmouth and Northeastern.

Flashy series win

Kent State won its first series against a ranked opponent since 2012 by taking two of three at then-No. 13 Tennessee. The Flashes outscored the Volunteers 14-10 over the three games. Nick Guidas and Peyton Williams combined for 4 2/3 innings of one-hit shutout relief in a 2-1 win on Saturday and Evan Holewinski held the Vols scoreless over the final four innings in the series-clinching 9-5 win on Sunday.

Hitting for cycle

Texas and Arkansas had players hit for the cycle Saturday.

Aiden Robbins became the first Texas player in 11 years to do it, starting with an RBI single in the first inning against Michigan State, tripling in the third, doubling in the sixth and homering off the right-field foul pole in the eighth. C.J Hinojosa was the previous Texas player to do it, against Kansas on April 19, 2015.

Camden Kozeal of Arkansas homered in the first inning against Xavier, tripled in the third, singled in the seventh and doubled in the ninth. Dylan Leach was the previous Arkansas player to hit for the cycle, against Central Arkansas on April 5, 2022.

Cleanup spot

TCU has hit eight home runs this season, all of them solo shots. … Mississippi has scored in the first inning in each of its eight games. … Reliever Ernesto Lugo-Canchola, the 2025 Division II pitcher of the year for Northwest Nazarene (Idaho), retired the first 19 batters he faced as a Florida Gator before the 20th reached on a wild pitch on a strikeout. He has allowed no hits in 6 1/3 innings over three appearances. … Virginia’s AJ Garcia, against Monmouth on Friday, became the fourth player this season to homer three times in a game.

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AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports

Eric Olson, The Associated Press