Softball sweeps Bears
at Easton, 5-3 and 2-0
By Rick Pal
Beneath the warmth of a sunny Saturday afternoon, when most of
the UCLA softball team went into deep freeze against the pesky
California Golden Bears, the top-ranked Bruins escaped unscathed
with 2-0 and 5-3 victories thanks to Herculean efforts of pitcher
Tanya Harding and shortstop Nicole Odom.
In game one, Harding carried the team on her shoulders to
victory in a pitching duel with Cal’s Whitney Floyd. In a game that
lasted eight innings, the normally offense-happy Bruin bats just
couldn’t connect with Floyd’s off-speed offerings.
"I wasn’t pleased with our inability to adjust at the plate.
Each inning we made (Floyd) look better and although she was very
effective, she is not better than the the hitters we have in our
lineup," UCLA co-head coach Sue Enquist said. "You can’t go in
there swinging from your butt and expect to hit her off-speed."
While Harding was just as successful on the mound, it was her
work at the plate which clinched the win for UCLA (35-2 overall,
18-1 Pac-10). In the bottom of the eighth with two outs and Kathi
Evans on first, Harding ended the drama by connecting with a Floyd
pitch that landed somewhere on Sunset Boulevard.
"It’s unfortunate that we put so much pressure on Tanya Harding.
She had to do it all in the first game," said Enquist.
Odom picked up some of that burden in the second game and also
showcased her all-around talent, leading the Bruins to their 5-3
victory.
Besides making several defensive stabs, Odom’s hitting and
baserunning proved too much for Cal. She sped around the bases from
first to score the go-ahead run in the fifth inning on a Jenny
Brewster double, and finished with two runs scored and a home
run.
In the sixth, she put the nail in the coffin for the Bears when
she robbed Cal’s Kirsten Drake of a clear hit by blocking the ball
with her body, which thwarted a Cal run that would have tied the
game.
With these hotly contested games, Cal proved that it can hang
with the Bruins if not beat them, and will go into next week’s
rematch in Berkeley with more confidence, according to Cal head
coach Diane Ninemire.
"UCLA has great pitching and outstanding hitters," said
Ninemire. "In the second game we certainly scored enough runs to
win the ball game, but we weren’t able to make the routine plays to
win the game."