Rajcic Named Freshman All-American

LOS ANGELES – UCLA right-handed pitcher Max Rajcic was named a Freshman All-American by Collegiate Baseball on Wednesday morning.

Rajcic, who served as the Bruins' closer during the 2021 season, was 2-1 this year with a 1.65 ERA, seven saves, and a 36-8 strikeout-to-walk ratio over 32 2/3 innings (24 appearances).

He was one of just two Pac-12 pitchers to make Collegiate Baseball's Frosh All-America squad, joining Oregon State's Will Frisch.

The Fullerton, Calif. native joins a strong lineage of Bruin pitchers to earn Freshman All-America status in recent years, including Adam Plutko, Zack Weiss, David Berg, Griffin Canning, Zach Pettway, and Holden Powell. He is the first Bruin to garner Freshman All-America honors since Jesse Bergin in 2019.

Rajcic assumed a prominent role in the back end of the bullpen immediately after making his collegiate debut on Mar. 23.  He went without allowing an earned run in 18 of 24 appearances, and never allowed more than one earned in any single outing.  

Standout efforts for Rajcic included May 15 at UC Santa Barbara (went seven-up, seven-down in a career-long 2.1 IP save opportunity) and May 22 against California (faced five batters, and struck them all out). He appeared in two of UCLA's four postseason games, allowing one earned run and striking out three over 3 2/3 innings.

Stay tuned to @UCLABaseball on Twitter for all offseason updates.