No. 1 seed UCLA ousted by Saint Mary’s in NCAA baseball regional

College baseball’s No. 1 seed is going home early.

The top-ranked UCLA Bruins bowed out of the NCAA tournament on Sunday after a 6-5 walk-off, extra-inning loss to the Saint Mary’s Gaels in the Los Angeles regional.

UCLA entered the ninth inning with a 5-4 lead, but allowed the Gaels to rally with two outs as Ian Armstrong delivered a game-tying single. Then in the 10th, Saint Mary’s sent the Bruins packing when Makoa Sniffen bounced a single into left field and scored Cody Kashimoto for the upset.

The Bruins entered the tournament with a 51-6 record, but were immediately sent to the loser’s side of the double-elimination regional bracket by this same Saint Mary’s team on Friday.

It was the first time the national No. 1 seed had lost its regional opener to a No. 4 seed in the current NCAA tournament format.

UCLA bounced back on Saturday with a 6-5 walk-off win of its own against Virginia Tech, getting a shot at revenge against the Gaels, who landed on the elimination side of the bracket after losing to Cal Poly earlier.

But Saint Mary’s proved that the slipper does indeed fit with its second win of the weekend over the Bruins.

It marks the end of the road for UCLA,, which made history during the season as the first team to go wire-to-wire as the No. 1 seed.

The Gaels, meanwhile, will now need to beat Cal Poly twice in order to advance to the super regionals.