In Washington, rain is a daily insignificance. But for the run-thirsty UCLA softball team, a pair of rain delays washed away recent offensive woes.
Prior to Saturday’s seventh-inning three-run outburst, the No. 4 Bruins (38-5, 10-2 Pac-10) had scored just five runs in five games.
But the Bruins took both games of their two-game set, defeating the Washington Huskies (25-16-1, 4-7 Pac-10) 2-1 on Friday and 4-0 on Saturday afternoon. The victories were especially satisfying for senior left fielder Krista Colburn, a native of Mukilteo, Wash.
“It always feels good to win,” Colburn said. “We did a lot of things well. We hit the ball hard. (Saturday) was a good day all around.”
Colburn herself had a great deal of success. She batted 5-for-8 overall and scored the only run the Bruins needed in the first inning of Saturday’s game. When the Bruins score first, they are 23-0. The Bruins also scored first in Friday’s contest.
Friday’s score may make the contest look like a pitchers’ duel, but UCLA was in control the entire game. The Bruins had 10 hits and 13 base runners, while senior pitcher Anjelica Selden (19-3) struck out 14.
The win was an important milestone for the pitcher: She is the 34th Division I pitcher to reach 100 career wins. She also surpassed her strikeout total from last season; she now has 222 compared to last year’s 213.
“The pitchers did a great job this weekend,” Colburn said. “They got the big pitch when they needed to. (Selden) and (sophomore Megan Langenfeld) threw great.”
Langenfeld (6-0) allowed one hit in her five innings of work on Saturday; Selden got the save ““ and three more strikeouts ““ after an hour of rain delay.
The seventh inning was a long one: After Colburn had singled home freshman third baseman Monica Harrison to make the score 2-0, rain forced a 23-minute break before junior second baseman Amanda Kamekona could step into the box. A throwing error by the Huskies got Kamekona on base, and Langenfeld helped her own cause by singling to right and driving in Colburn and Kamekona.
The rally showed the type of efficiency the Bruins’ couldn’t find in the five games before this road trip.
“We haven’t come up with the big hits with runners on,” freshman right fielder Samantha Camuso said. “We’ve had hits, but the timing’s been off.”
For Camuso, the weekend was encouraging. She broke out of a five-game mini-slump, in which she had gone 1-for-10, before getting a hit on Saturday.
“It wasn’t the greatest hit,” Camuso said of her sixth-inning single. “It’s good to get something going. It’s just one of those things I’ve got to keep working at. Eventually it’ll come together.”