Coach John Savage knew his UCLA baseball team needed to “come out firing” in its elimination game in the losers’ bracket of the NCAA Tournament,

The Bruins did just that in a 16-2 blowout of Southeastern Louisiana on Saturday, keeping their season alive in the Auburn Regional at Plainsman Park in Auburn, Alabama.

No. 2 seed UCLA (39-23) still has a tough road ahead to make it out of the four-team regional, needing two wins Sunday. The Bruins will look to make it out of the losers’ bracket Sunday morning when they play the loser of Saturday night’s matchup between No. 1 seed Auburn (38-20) and No. 3 seed Florida State (34-23).

If the Bruins win, they’ll face the winner of that game and look to force a rematch Monday to take the regional.

The Bruins’ bats delivered early Saturday with three runs in the first and then batted around in the third to take a 7-1 lead and force Southeastern Louisiana starter Andrew Landry out of the game.

UCLA finished with 19 hits, including two home runs and three doubles, while holding Southeastern Louisiana (30-31) to three hits.

“We did a good job of swinging the bats,” Savage said. “I think we put a lot of at-bats together. We hit some balls hard. I thought we were patient when we needed to be patient and aggressive when we needed to be aggressive.”

The Bruins’ 16 runs were the most in program history in an NCAA Tournament game since 2004 against Oklahoma.

Ethan Gourson highlighted the three-run first with a double high off the left-field wall. It was his 23rd double of the season, a freshman program record. Two more runs scored on an error by Landry, who overthrew the first baseman on a comebacker to the mound by Kyle Karros.

The Bruins sent nine men to the plate in the third. Michael Curialle came around to score after leading off with a walk. Two of the three hits in the inning were singles that scored two runs each – with Darius Perry and Cody Schrier delivering the key hits to widen the UCLA lead to six.

Outfielder Carson Yates, who went 3 for 6 with a home run, enjoyed seeing success up and down the lineup.

“One through nine, everybody was just passing it from guy to guy,” Yates said. “It’s really nice to trust the entire lineup to just put a good, quality at-bat together.”

Yates, Schrier and Gourson each had three hits, and Perry went 4 for 4. Home runs by Yates and Gourson later in the game helped UCLA pad the lead, as the Bruins scored three runs each in the sixth and seventh.

Yates added that the confidence level of the UCLA hitters should carry over to Sunday.

“Especially in a situation where you’ve got to keep winning to keep advancing, it’s so nice having everybody just confident at the plate,” Yates said. “That’s who you are as a hitter. If you’re not confident up there, it’s hard to trust yourself at the plate.”

UCLA starter Ethan Flanagan settled down after the base paths were busy the first couple of innings. Flanagan gave up a run in the second inning but induced an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded and one out to limit the damage. The freshman then retired the next seven before departing in the fifth with 81 pitches when he let the first two batters reach.

Reliever Jake Saum then escaped a bases-loaded jam with nobody out to keep Southeastern Louisiana from getting back into the game.

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Kelly Austin (4-3, 4.29 ERA), who pitched two-thirds of an inning in relief Friday in the loss to Florida State, will start the first game Sunday regardless of the opponent, according to Savage.

UCLA used four relievers Saturday, none pitching more than two innings. Savage said everyone will be available Sunday. He’ll likely have to rely on the bullpen to help stave off elimination, like he did in the Pac-12 Tournament.

“Our bullpen is used to the grind,” Savage said. “They lived it last week and certainly will be up to the task this week as well.”