The Oregon Ducks and UCLA Bruins met on Sunday for what promised to be a thrilling finale to an incredible Big Ten Tournament. The game met and exceeded every expectation as the matchup resembled a potential Super Regional or College World Series Game with thrilling twists and turns throughout the day.
UCLA struck first before Oregon’s power showed up in the 6th inning with a pair of home runs to take a 2-1 lead. The Ducks led until the Bruins were down to their final out in the 9th inning, when the Bruins’ magical weekend continued with an RBI single to send the team to extras. UCLA and Oregon each posted scoreless 10th innings, and it looked like the championship’s ending could be an all-timer.
Botched call in the Big Ten Tournament finale costs Oregon
In the bottom of the 11th, the drama was at an all-time high as UCLA loaded the bases on a close call at 3rd base, where there wasn’t a good enough angle to change or overturn the call. After a strikeout for the first out of the inning, Oregon’s Devin Bell threw a ball up and in which was called a walk-off hit-by-pitch.
A WALK-OFF HIT-BY-PITCH? 🤯UCLA WINS ITS FIRST-EVER BIG TEN CHAMPIONSHIP IN THE 11TH INNING! 😳 pic.twitter.com/OiX6pVKmeO
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) May 24, 2026
From the moment the alleged hit-by-pitch happened, it took the umpire a full 8 seconds to make a call siding with the batter who told him he was hit. While the umpire yelled “I got it, I got it, I got it”, the time it took for him to make up his mind clearly shows he didn’t. The umpire’s decision to side with UCLA’s batter proved costly for the Oregon Ducks, as the camera angles couldn’t show if the batter was clearly hit or not, but the call on the field had to stand…