LOS ANGELES — Virginia Tech stood three outs away from keeping its season alive, carrying a 5-3 lead into the bottom of the ninth inning against UCLA, the nation's top-ranked team.Instead, the Bruins pieced together a stunning final rally, consisting of a pair of solo home runs and capped by a walk-off single from Phoenix Call, to hand the Hokies a heartbreaking 6-5 defeat and bring their season to a sudden end."Just a tough, tough outcome, obviously, for our guys," said Virginia Tech head coach John Szefc. "Thought we put ourselves in position when they're the number one team in the country for a reason. You've got to get them out 27 times at home, which is difficult. We got them out 25 [times]; wasn't enough. Give our guys a lot of credit, going to the bottom of the ninth with a 5-3 lead in this place, which is a pretty tough thing to do."So, I'll give our guys an awful lot of credit for entering the ninth like that, and then we kind of piece it together on the mound. Our guys did a pretty good job for the most part. Again, those guys are good. I give John [Savage] and his staff a lot of credit when it's, if not the best team in the country, certainly one of them."𝙂𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙢 𝙝𝙚𝙡𝙡#Hokies 🦃⚾️ pic.twitter.com/f2KwQXUG4Z— Virginia Tech Baseball (@HokiesBaseball) May 30, 2026The Hokies (30-26, 0-2 L.A. Regional) went scoreless in the top half of the first; UCLA (52-7, 1-1 L.A. Regional) did the same, but made it very tough on Virginia Tech starting pitcher Brett Renfrow.A leadoff single and a pair of walks loaded the bases for the Bruins with just one out in the top half of the frame. Renfrow was able to bounce back strong and battle through a pair of full counts to end the inning and keep UCLA off the board, but he had thrown 34 pitches in the opening frame."It forced him to come out of the game sooner," Szefc said about Renfrow's 34-pitch opening frame. "But we go into the ninth with a 5-3 lead, so I don't think it really had anything to do with the outcome of the game; it just had more to do with him coming out of the game sooner than he would like, that's all."The Hokies struck first in the top half of the third. A one-out, full-count walk to Owen Petrich gave the Hokies a baserunner before Pete Daniel grounded out to the right side, moving Petrich to second. Sam Grube followed that up with a go-ahead single up the middle, just over the extended glove of UCLA shortstop Roch Cholowsky, scoring Petrich and giving the Hokies a 1-0 lead.That lead held through the third before UCLA started the bottom of the fourth with a first-pitch solo-shot to right field from Cashel Dugger, immediately tying the ball game. Renfrow recorded the first out, but he subsequently gave up a pair of doubles to Phoenix Call and Jarrod Hocking in back-to-back at-bats, scoring another run before he could escape the inning.Renfrow's day — and likely, his Virginia Tech career, too — finished with a four-inning performance, where he struck out a pair of batters and gave up as many earned runs. "It was good, man," Szefc said about Renfrow's start. "The guy hadn't pitched in 16 days; he came in, threw strikes, he got us through four... Again, you got to realize, he's not pitching against some average team, he's pitching against one of the best teams in the country at their place. So, they're going to make you work an awful lot harder for outs than an average team would, and that's what they did. His pitch count got raised pretty, pretty quickly, but he got us off to a good start, and that's all we could ask for."In the next half-inning, the Hokies quickly tied it with a solo shot of their own. This time, it was from the bat of nine-hole hitter Owen Petrich, who hammered a pitch to left field and easily cleared the wall.But UCLA responded very quickly.Preston Crowl took over for Renfrow in the fifth inning. He got the first out, but then gave up a go-ahead big fly to Will Gasparino — the third solo homer of the day between the two teams.The score held there for a little while. UCLA starter Michael Barnett seemed to find a rhythm, and Crowl kept UCLA off the board for the rest of his outing.Barnett's day quickly came to a close, though, as a leadoff solo homer — the fourth of the game — from Ethan Gibson tied the game back up and breathed new life into the Virginia Tech dugout in the sixth.After tying the game, Griffin Stieg — one of the Hokies' weekend starters — took the mound in relief, setting the side down to get the game to the eighth, where the Hokies took control late. It was Stieg's first relief appearance since May 3, 2023, his freshman year.After Cholowsky stole a leadoff single from Pete Daniel with a diving snag, Sam Grube followed with a strikeout, and it looked like the Hokies could be going down in order at a crucial point in the game.Ethan Ball had other plans, skying the first pitch he saw for yet another solo homer deep over the right field wall, giving the Hokies a critical 4-3 lead, with the upset win in their sights.The Bruins threatened in the eighth, but couldn't quite come through, leaving a pair of runners on base.The Hokies added some insurance in the ninth against Easton Hawk, one of the nation's best relieving arms.Gibson hammered an 0-1 pitch to right field, striking a leadoff double into right and putting another run in scoring position.Hudson Lutterman got into a hitter's count. He was sitting fastball, and he got it, pushing it to right field for an RBI single, giving the Hokies a 5-3 lead.The Hokies were able to move Mycah Jordan — who pinch ran for Lutterman — to second, but not score him.They needed just three outs in the bottom of the ninth, and Madden Clement was faced with the task of closing out the ninth.Unfortunately for the Hokies, things unravelled at that point. Both Mulivai Levu and Roman Martin struck a pair of solo shots — the 6th and 7th of the game — to quickly knot up the contest at five apiece before Ethan Grim was brought in.An infield single from Gasparino was followed by a pinch-hit single from Dominic Cadiz, putting runners on the corners with one out, and the winning run just 90 feet away.UCLA needed a big swing and got it from Call, who lined a 2-2 pitch into left field, scoring Gasparino and walking the game off in dramatic fashion."They're just really good. It's the best team in the country," Szefc said. "They're the best team in the country for a reason. They're not just going to roll over in their home park and have their season end. They're going to make you work for everything, and that's exactly what they did."A tough loss did not negate a strong season from the Hokies, who made a regional for the first time since 2022. Virginia Tech went toe-to-toe with the top-ranked team in the nation. Ultimately, however, it came up just a little short.Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow