FRESNO “”mdash; For the 20th time in 22 years, the UCLA softball
team has advanced to the Women’s College World Series.
The Bruins won their NCAA regional in dominant fashion,
outscoring their four opponents over the weekend 22-2, including
Sunday’s 5-0 regional championship victory over Michigan
State.
The win came in a rematch against the Spartans, who had given
UCLA their only real test of the weekend on Saturday in a 6-2
win.
The Bruins were comfortably ahead the whole game on Sunday
““ nothing like Saturday’s nail biter.
On Sunday, UCLA got on the board in the bottom of the first
inning. With Natasha Watley and Claire Sua on base with two outs,
Stephanie Ramos hit a homerun to center field off of Spartan
pitcher Jessica Beech. The blast eliminated any chance of Michigan
State pulling off the upset.
“I don’t think it was a mistake pitch. I think she
just took the pitch, and she’s a good player,” Beech
said.
With pitcher Keira Goerl changing speeds adeptly for the Bruins,
the Spartans went down meekly as they only managed two hits through
seven innings.
“We got our butts handed to us, that’s it.”
Michigan State coach Jacquie Joseph said.
“We did a lot of things well today,” UCLA coach Sue
Enquist said. “We had some great defense, we attacked on
offense, we advanced runners when we needed to, we executed
offensive plays; if we can take that game into Oklahoma, we will be
competitive.”
Saturday, the Spartans jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the
bottom of the first. With Sandy Lewis on first base and one out,
Natalie Furrow hit a line drive smash that second baseman Monique
Mejia could not glove. The ball rolled all the way to the right
field wall, scoring Lewis from first base and advancing Furrow to
third.
A few pitches later, UCLA catcher Emily Zaplatosch tried to pick
off Furrow from third, but her throw was high and went into left
field. Furrow, a sure out if the ball would have been caught,
walked home.
The Bruins scored single runs in the second and third innings
with home runs by Zaplatosch and Sua.
The game stayed tied until the top of the seventh inning when
the Bruins put four runs on the board. With one out and Caitlin
Benyi on at first, Tairia Mims hit a high fly ball to center. Lewis
seemed to camp under it at the warning track but the ball carried
just beyond her outstretched glove for a clutch two-run home run,
Mims’ 19th of the year.
“I didn’t really think it was gone,” Mims
said. “I thought I got under it too much, but when I saw her
(center fielder Lewis) start dancing, I got really
excited.”
The Bruins then took a page from Michigan State’s
notebook, as UCLA took advantage of an error by shortstop Margaret
Schick to put two more runs on the board.
A double by Zaplatosch finished the scoring.