“Don’t cry for me, Oklahoma.”
Perhaps that was the mantra for the UCLA softball team in 2009, as the wringing pain of a second-round elimination simmered away, and a sense of unfinished business kicked in.
At this point last season, an unranked Missouri team rocked then-No. 2 UCLA with a 9-1 upset in the rubber match of the Super Regional, eliminating the Bruins from postseason play and leaving them with nothing but an offseason full of questions and doubts.
“We felt sick the whole summer and fall,” senior pitcher Megan Langenfeld said. “It was something that we really never wanted to feel again.”
What a difference a year makes.
No. 5 UCLA will return to the NCAA Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City after concluding Super Regionals play with a 10-1 win over Louisiana-Lafayette Sunday at Easton Stadium. The Bruins swept the Ragin’ Cajuns in the best-of-three series.
It will be the Bruins’ eighth trip in the past 10 seasons to the pantheon of college softball. Since taking over for legendary coach Sue Enquist in 2007, current skipper Kelly Inouye-Perez has yet to guide her team to a national championship. Inouye-Perez was nevertheless pleased to have another opportunity at bringing her first title as a coach to UCLA.
“I am very proud of the girls’ fight,” she said after Sunday’s win. “They stuck together, it was a team effort, and we’re going back to Oklahoma City, so I’m very proud of the program.”
It didn’t take long for UCLA to get going Sunday. The Bruins took the early lead on an RBI single by sophomore Dani Yudin in the top of the first. The Ragin’ Cajuns responded with a run in the third, but that was as close as they would get the rest of the way.
The Bruins recaptured the lead on senior catcher Kaila Shull’s two-run blast with two outs in the fourth, a breakthrough considering ULL pitcher Brittany Cuevas had been retiring a series of batters on fly-outs.
“I knew we just needed to shorten up (our swings),” Shull said. “I saw a good pitch and put a good swing on it, and it happened to come together for me.”
UCLA went on to run-rule the Ragin’ Cajuns in the ensuing inning with a seven-run outburst that included a grand slam by sophomore right fielder Samantha Camuso. Camuso has five home runs thus far in the NCAA Tournament.
In the circle, Langenfeld took over for junior Donna Kerr and pitched two and two-thirds innings of one-hit ball to pick up her 11th win of the season.
The first game of the series on Saturday unfolded much like Sunday’s game.
After ULL staked an early 2-1 lead in the top of the second, the Bruin bats came alive in the bottom half of the frame.
UCLA went through its entire batting order in the second, sending 12 batters to the plate. The Bruins reeled off a seven-run rally against ULL pitcher Donna Bourgeois that began and ended with Camuso. She led off the inning with a solo home run and capped off the seven-run spurt with a 2-RBI double.
A solo shot from second baseman GiOnna DiSalvatore in the fifth put the mercy rule into effect and secured a 10-2 UCLA victory.
In the series, Camuso went 4-for-6 at the plate with seven RBI. She upped her batting average to .321 on the year.
“We just wanted to strike early and often,” Camuso said after Saturday’s win.
“It was really important to get the lead-off batter on so that we could move her over and clutch up with a hit. That was basically the plan every inning.”