Jack Radel and Notre Dame were a straight-up layup Friday night, but we're really digging through a river of mud trying to find anything to play Saturday.
With that said, I found an interesting angle with the nation's top-ranked team.
UCLA Bruins (-5.5) @ Ohio State Buckeyes (+700) | Total: 14
UCLA is off to a roaring 11-2 start in 2026. They're either pulverizing teams or winning 15-round bouts against top teams in the country. Either way, it's all good in LA right now. In the preseason I was all over this group individually and collectively. The Bruins were a preseason "Omaha 8" group for me, as well as a hammer play to win the Big 10 regular season at 3.0 units. After an 11-1 rout Friday night, let's see if they can run it back a day later.
Laying 5.5 runs is a lot, but with the way UCLA is playing it may not be enough. The Bruins will have Michael Barnett on the mound for this contest, and he owns a 1.80 ERA and .128 on-base percentage against. San Diego transfer Logan Reddemann has been fantastic as the Friday ace, and Barnett is filling his role well thus far. Facing a weak Ohio State lineup, it could be easy pickings for this Bruins staff the rest of the weekend.
Ohio State has only scored 53 runs in 12 games -- good for 4.4 runs per contest. Collectively, they only have seven homers and are batting only .229. The only productive player at the moment is Noah Furcht (.357 BA, 3 HR, 9 RBI). If Barnett can keep eating up innings, it's difficult imagining the Buckeyes mustering more than two or three runs over five or six frames.
Projected to throw for Ohio St. is junior righty Chris Domke, who has put up a 3.65 ERA and 18:4 K:BB across 12.1 IP. He saw a couple capable offenses in Ole Miss and Louisiana Tech, so he's not coming in without seeing some sort of competition. The only thing is, there's almost nobody at UCLA's level right now.
It's an offensive group that is relentless, especially with two outs. Will Gasparino is the hottest player on the planet with 11 long balls in his first 13 games. Projected top 2026 pick Roch Cholowsky has done nothing to cool the hype with eight homers and a .348 batting average. The "slept on" Mulivai Levu leads the team with a .393 average and also has three homers. While the stats don't jump out for the entire lineup, everyone plays a part in some form or fashion. Wherever you look, UCLA has horses that can flip an entire game with one swing of the bat.
I predicted the Bruins to runaway with the Big 10 while winning at least 45 games in the process, so when you have a feeder-fish like Ohio State in here, they're going to get rinsed. I think UCLA wins this one big...again.
The Pick: UCLA -5.5 (-115 DraftKings)
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