The sun set over a quiet Easton Stadium on Sunday.
Friends and family gathered around teary-eyed Bruins, offering words of condolence.
After all, the second-seeded UCLA softball team had just been stumped, defeated and eliminated by unseeded Missouri in the NCAA Super Regionals.
“Everyone is going to throw a blow (punch),” coach Kelly Inouye-Perez said. “(The opponent) will throw a blow, and then we’ll throw a blow. And … we did answer back but couldn’t push the runs across.”
All season long, from fall ball to postseason play, players and coaches alike had stressed winning a 12th national championship as the only measure of success.
But here the Bruins were, their season drawn to a close quite early when in years past, they were a fixture at the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City.
“From a personal standpoint, I’m just a little bummed out that our season is over,” senior second baseman Amanda Kamekona said. “It was cut a lot shorter than we had initially planned.”
Certainly, the road to redemption was a bumpy one and ultimately cut short.
Personnel-wise, the Bruins lost four players to graduation, including pitcher Anjelica Selden, who led the pitching staff in 2008 with a 29-5 record and a 0.96 ERA.
And then there was the absence of senior catcher Jennifer Schroeder and sophomore right fielder Samantha Camuso.
The former was not with the team for violating a team rule and the latter was lost for the year after undergoing surgery for a torn labrum in her right shoulder.
Ranked No. 4 in the preseason polls, UCLA started out with a respectable 25-4 record through 29 non-conference games before opening Pac-10 play with a shaky 1-4 start.
It wasn’t until a midseason win against Pac-10 rival Arizona that the Bruins hit their stride, going on to conclude the regular season 41-9 and 16-5 in conference play.
Along the way, the team collected its ninth Pac-10 championship, though hardly anybody was content with that recognition.
What the Bruins sought was another NCAA championship trophy to add to their mantelpiece, and they appeared to be headed in the right direction.
By defeating Long Beach State and Fresno State in the Regionals, No. 2 UCLA advanced to the Super Regionals, only to have its hopes fall apart at the seams.
It has now been five years and counting since the Bruins last won a national title, an unfamiliar dry spell for a team that adorns its outfield walls with 11 championship banners.
In fact, last year’s senior class was the first to graduate without a title, and this year, Amanda Kamekona, the lone senior, takes leave on a similar note.
But that isn’t to say that the second baseman didn’t enjoy her years donning the blue-and-gold uniform.
“I had a blast,” Kamekona said. “It was a great experience, both academically and softball-wise. It was nice to be on a team where everybody is on the same page and is on a mission to accomplish what you want to do.”
For the rest of the Bruins, they’ll have no other choice but to look to next season and go at it again.
But according to Inouye-Perez, the team won’t have to start from scratch. Rather, the pieces are in place for another title run.
“This weekend was a very frustrating one,” she said. “But I wouldn’t change a thing. We’re on the right track, we have great experience … and we’re shooting for a championship every year.”