On Sunday morning, the UCLA softball team was looking to keep its winning momentum and finish the Stacy Winsberg Memorial Tournament undefeated with a win in the last game against No. 5 Oklahoma.
But after suffering a 6-1 loss to the Bruins earlier in the tournament, the Sooners were ready to get even.
Oklahoma, which only managed one run and four hits in the first matchup against the No. 10 Bruins on Friday, woke up their bats the second time around, scoring seven runs off eight hits and capitalizing on two Bruin defensive errors for a 7-0 win.
Offensively, the Bruins were unable to maintain the fire that kept them strong in their first four games, only managing three hits against Oklahoma’s D.J. Mathis in comparison to their 59 total hits in the tournament.
“We simply didn’t execute,” coach Kelly Inouye-Perez said. “If you don’t execute the little things then you crack doors, you let anybody break it wide open, and today was simply that. Friday we executed, and today we didn’t.”
Despite the loss, the Bruins had an impressive weekend, leaving the tournament with a 4-1 record.
“Overall we did really well, we came out strong almost every game, and we really kind of sent a message about our team ““ that UCLA softball is back,” senior pitcher Anjelica Selden said.
The Bruins opened their season on Friday with sophomore pitcher Megan Langenfeld’s 10-1 win against Nevada and freshman pitcher Donna Kerr’s 6-1 win over the Sooners. The freshmen of the team made their offensive presence known early, with GiOnna DiSalvatore totaling four RBIs for the day and Samantha Camuso hitting her first home run as a Bruin with three RBIs.
“Our team is so contagious within each other,” senior third basemen Ashley Herrera said. “The freshmen all played a huge part, and they did so great that you couldn’t even tell that they were freshmen.”
The Bruins showed no mercy in Saturday’s 27-1 slaughter against Santa Clara, setting a total of five UCLA single-game records. The team set the record for the most runs scored (27) and hits (22). Junior shortstop Amanda Kamekona set the record for RBIs with eight and Camuso took the most runs scored with five.
In the following game against the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos, it seemed as if the Bruins lost their pop, scoring only two runs through six innings and giving the Gauchos five runs off four errors. With two outs and two on board in the bottom of the seventh, DiSalvatore slammed a home run over right field taking the game into international-tie-breaker extra innings.
When Santa Barbara was unable to bring in any runs, sophomore Kaila Shull took the lead with a two-run walk-off knocked over the left-field wall, making the final score 7-5.
“We came into this weekend and found out that we’re pretty good, but we also see that we still have some things to work on,” Inouye-Perez said. “It’s early in the season and we’re learning our lessons, and now it’s our job to go in and do something about it for the rest of the preseason and the Pac-10 season.”