Loyola Marymount pitcher Tiffany Pagano calmly fielded senior UCLA catcher Jaisa Creps’ ground ball and threw the ball to first base for the final out.
This wasn’t the way it was supposed to end.
An emotional 12th-seeded UCLA team was stunningly ousted in NCAA Regional play on Saturday, dropping a hard-fought, eight-inning battle with Hawai’i 3-1 early in the day, and then losing to Loyola Marymount 4-2 in the nightcap. The loss ended the Bruins’ eight-year streak of reaching the Women’s College World Series.
“You never like to end a season,” a teary-eyed UCLA coach Kelly Inouye-Perez said. “We’re always planning to get to the end ““ that’s part of our lifestyle, part of our culture and goals. It’s emotional right now, not only because you lose, but because there are eight seniors that will never wear the uniform again.”
For Inouye-Perez, in her first year as the program’s coach, the end of the season marked the end of a tumultuous year in which the Bruins constantly had to fight to overcome adversity.
All of the drama began in fall, when legendary former Bruin coach Sue Enquist unexpectedly announced her retirement. The announcement left the players in shock, and for much of fall they struggled to get on the same page with each other and the new coaching staff.
By the time the season began in February, Inouye-Perez had gotten her team to come together as a unit, but the Bruins, starting three freshmen, struggled on the field to replace the production of departed seniors Emily Zaplatosch, Caitlin Benyi and Andrea Duran. But by the second half of Pac-10 play, it seemed as if the Bruins were beginning to click together on the field as well. UCLA went 11-5 to close out conference play and had taken two out of three games on the road against top-seeded Arizona and seventh-seeded Arizona State, both of whom cruised into Super Regional play.
But the Bruin offense went cold on Saturday, and, despite valiant comeback efforts in both games, UCLA fell short against a Rainbow Wahine team that was actually ranked ahead of the Bruins in the final NFCA poll, and a Lion team that ended the day winning two games before being eliminated by the Rainbow Wahine on Sunday.
“I’m proud of what our team went through this year and how we just gave it our all,” said senior first baseman/second baseman Lisa Dodd while fighting back tears and struggling for words after the Bruins’ season ended. “We gave it everything we had.”
Despite ending the season in disappointing fashion, the season was one of personal growth for all of the players and for Inouye-Perez as coach. Inouye-Perez loses eight seniors this season, but still has a core group of talented players coming back, and boasts one of the top recruiting classes in the nation for next season.
“Hats off to (Inouye-Perez),” senior shortstop Jodie Legaspi said. “It’s been a great ride. She’s going to have such a wonderful career here at UCLA being the head coach.”
The Bruins’ game against Hawai’i turned into a pitchers’ duel between UCLA freshman Megan Langenfeld and Hawai’i junior Kate Robinson. But in the top of the sixth inning, a couple of controversial noncalls worked to the Rainbow Wahine’s advantage.
With runners on second and third and just one out in the top of the sixth inning, Langenfeld jumped ahead in the count 1-2, to Hawai’i’s Brandi Peiler. Langenfeld’s next two pitches froze Peiler and appeared to have caught the outside corner, but the home plate umpire ruled that the pitches were outside. Peiler then delivered a sacrifice fly to put the Rainbow Wahine ahead 1-0.
A Legaspi single in the bottom of the sixth tied the game, but in the top of the eighth inning Peiler hit a bases-loaded double to drive in the game’s winning two runs.
Inouye-Perez opted to start junior pitcher Anjelica Selden in Saturday’s nightcap against Loyola Marymount instead of Langenfeld. Langenfeld had beat the Lions in the Bruins’ regional opener on Friday, but was working on short rest after pitching all seven innings in Friday’s win and all eight innings in the earlier loss to Hawai’i on Saturday.
Selden gave up four runs, with the big blow coming from the bat of Lion sophomore Megan Ackerman, who hit a three-run home run in the bottom of the fourth inning to put Loyola Marymount up 4-0.
Meanwhile, Pagano had limited the Bruin bats to just one hit in her first five innings. The bats came back for the Bruins in the sixth and seventh innings, with UCLA scoring two runs in the top of the sixth.
After the Bruins received a clutch pinch hit by senior Kristen Dedmon and a bunt single by senior center fielder Tara Henry to load the bases with one out in the top of the seventh, it seemed like the Bruin mystique that has appeared often in the past four years was bound to take over. But after junior outfielder Krista Colburn grounded out to first base, and Creps grounded out to the pitcher, the Bruins’ fate was sealed.
“It gives me great joy knowing that they left it on the field, doing everything they could to fight back to the end,” Inouye-Perez said. “We simply ran out of time.”