UCLA softball has a history of being the sport’s juggernaut, but a school an hour south is the closest thing to its kryptonite.
Cal State Fullerton’s 32 wins to 36 losses and a tie were the most any school had against the Bruin softball team.
After Wednesday night, make that 37 losses.
The No. 3 Bruins (14-2) soundly beat the Titans (5-7) by a score of 6-2 in Fullerton to add another victory to the tally against their numerically closest rival.
“That’s our goal: to win every ball game,” Bruin coach Kelly Inouye-Perez said. “A day like today was a good opportunity for us to test different parts of our game.”
The win was number nine of the Bruins current winning streak, but the game did test them.
The contest started slowly, reminiscent of last year’s 1-0 extra-innings, regular season loss.
The Bruins threatened early, but never scored.
In the first inning, sophomore Katie Schroeder reached base on a walk, stole second, then advanced to third on a fielding error by Fullerton’s second baseman Sheila Holguin.
But Ari Cervantes (2-3), Fullerton’s only returning pitcher from one year ago, struck out juniors Kaila Shull and Megan Langenfeld to end the inning.
The Bruins put a runner on base in every inning but couldn’t push anyone across. In all, the team stranded 11.
“It’s a game of seven innings,” Inouye-Perez said. “If you don’t get an outcome right way in the first, you’ve got to keep fighting. … Play seven innings strong and (don’t) get caught up emotionally in the middle of the battle.”
Sophomore Donna Kerr (7-2) pitched decently after walking the first Fullerton batter she faced.
She scattered three walks with seven strikeouts, before giving up a Francesca Gonzales two-run homer in the bottom of the third.
She finished with four walks and 10 strikeouts in five innings.
The Bruins struck back in the top of the fourth.
Julie Burney was hit by a pitch, and freshman Andrea Harrison walked. A passed ball moved Harrison to second and pinch-runner Lauren Mirabal to third. Then freshman Dani Yudin singled up the middle to tie the game.
But the freshman wasn’t done yet. She led off in the sixth and drove one over the right-center wall to give the Bruins a 3-2 lead.
“I don’t know what the count was,” Yudin said of her home run. “I didn’t know (where the ball went). I just ran and it happened to go over.”
Her coach was impressed with the first-year’s timely hitting.
“(Yudin) clutched up and got us a win,” Inouye-Perez said.
Five batters and two runners later, Shull homered to left to increase that lead to 6-2.
And that was the game.
ON THE ROAD, AGAIN: This weekend, the Bruins will hit the road again, traveling to the San Diego Classic.
They will play Utah (7-8) and Colorado State (9-6) on Friday and San Diego State (5-8) on Saturday. The biggest test of the weekend comes against undefeated No. 12 Missouri (8-0) on Sunday morning.
UCLA’s tournament run will conclude against the University of San Diego (1-8).