After weeks of heartache, something finally went the
Bruins’ way in the late innings on Sunday.
Sophomore Caitlin Benyi mashed a home run over the center field
wall in the tenth inning, giving the Bruins a 3-2 victory over
Oregon.
No. 3 UCLA (29-6, 2-5 Pac-10) got its first conference wins this
weekend, taking two of three games from the Oregon schools.
While the Bruins are still near the bottom of the conference
standings, Sunday’s emotional win may be the key to breaking
the team’s in-conference slump.
“It’s great for us to see ourselves leave people on
the field, to be the team that can have the walk-off base
hit,” said coach Sue Enquist.
UCLA came into the weekend desperate for some wins. The team
lost four games to No. 1 Arizona and No. 5 Washington. Three of the
losses were seventh-inning, game-winning hits off of top pitcher
Keira Goerl (17-4).
This weekend, the Bruins were able to reverse the trend against
the Ducks (32-11, 6-3 Pac 10).
“It was nice to finally get another win,” Benyi
said.
After the Bruins squandered multiple opportunities late in the
game, Benyi took the first pitch of the 10th inning out of the
park.
“At that point, there’s nothing to lose so you might
as well just swing,” Benyi said.
The Ducks had taken the bat out of Benyi’s hand in the
seventh inning. With two outs and the game-winning run on second,
they intentionally walked her to face sophomore Andrea Duran, who
flew out to shortstop.
In the 10th, Benyi was just looking to get on base for the fifth
time in the game to start a rally, but ended up finishing the game
off.
UCLA stayed in the game because of its dominant pitching. For
the first time this season, all three Bruin pitchers got into the
game.
Freshman Lisa Dodd (11-2) started the game and gave up only two
hits, but left after the fifth inning, when she gave up a
game-tying homer.
Enquist brought Michelle Turner (1-0) into the tied game for
only her second outing of the year, following a plan from before
the game started.
“It was a team effort today,” Dodd said. “I
got in trouble and she came in.”
After a leadoff single in the ninth, Enquist brought in Goerl to
keep the Ducks off the scoreboard. She threw two perfect innings,
setting up Benyi’s homer.
Benyi was dominant offensively all weekend, hitting a home run
in each game.
Overall, Goerl had an up-and-down weekend. She dominated Oregon
State (36-15, 2-7 Pac-10) on Friday, giving up only two hits in a
6-0 UCLA victory.
On Saturday, she gave up four runs in the first inning against
Oregon, which was too much to overcome, as the Bruins lost 4-3.