By Vytas Mazeika
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
vmazeika@media.ucla.edu
OKLAHOMA CITY – Friday, the Women’s College World Series didn’t
feel quite right. It could’ve been the fact the second game wasn’t
finished until Saturday afternoon, but something else was
missing.
The absent element was the UCLA softball team.
But as if almost taboo, the topic went with little if any
mention. Everyone was well aware the tournament still had quite a
ways to go.
"You celebrate for your 15, 20 minutes of fame and then you have
another game to play," said Florida State head coach JoAnne Graf,
whose squad upset top-seeded UCLA on Thursday. "This is a
tournament and one game isn’t going to win or lose this thing."
Discounting 1998, when UCLA was on probation and ineligible for
postseason play, the Bruins have always been considered a lock to
play in Friday’s winner’s bracket. Only once before, when the
format changed in 1994, have the nine-time national champions taken
Friday off. That’s when UCLA lost 1-0 to Fresno State in its WCWS
opener.
Thanks to Thursday’s 1-0 loss, the Bruins suffered through only
their second gameless Friday. The main beneficiary of UCLA’s loss
may have been Cal, who defeated FSU 1-0 to advance in the winner’s
bracket.
The time off may not have been a deterrent for the Bruins if
Saturday’s 2-0 win over Oklahoma was to be a sign of things to
come. But it does leave little room for error in the
double-elimination format prior to the championship game.
"I think that day off helped us," UCLA head coach Sue Enquist
said. "We needed a day to just cool off. We were frustrated, needed
to clear our heads, do some training and really try to start fresh.
And I’m really pleased the way the team showed up today."
UCLA doesn’t really mind playing the extra games, calling it a
test of "mental stamina." The teams that were tested physically
Friday and early Saturday were Arizona and Arizona State. Their
game began a 6:42 p.m. local time Friday and finished just before
1:00 p.m. the next day after an 11:00 a.m. restart.
"Longest 48 hours of my life," Arizona head coach Mike Candrea
said. "I didn’t know if we were ever going to get that game
in."
Any disadvantage UCLA may have faced by having to play two games
Saturday disappeared with the suspension of Friday’s Arizona-ASU
game. When Arizona managed to squeak by with a 1-0 win, ASU had to
start making preparations for a game six hours later against the
winner of the UCLA-Oklahoma game, played immediately
afterwards.
"If it had been boxing, we might have won," ASU head coach Linda
Wells said. "I think both last night and today we won more innings,
but it’s not boxing. If the judges were scoring, whether they were
sitting in the dugout or in the bleachers, we might have on the
scorecard.
"We didn’t win on the scoreboard, which is what counts."
The rest of Saturday’s games went pretty much as planned. After
all, the unorthodox and elongated Friday had finally passed.