Kentucky steals two of three from UCLA softball to end season

In less than 24 hours, the UCLA softball team’s spirit took a roller coaster ride from euphoria to heartbreak.

On Saturday night, the Bruins were jumping and screaming in excitement after a sixth-inning grand slam led them to a comeback victory over the Kentucky Wildcats.

Freshman shortstop Delaney Spaulding, who hit the go-ahead grand slam, said after the game that the home run was “no doubt” the most exciting moment of her UCLA softball career. With the momentous grand slam and a 1-0 lead in the three-game NCAA Super Regional series, UCLA was seemingly in the driver’s seat.

By Sunday afternoon, however, all of that energy and excitement was gone. No. 3 seed UCLA lost both games in the Sunday doubleheader against No. 14 seed Kentucky, and lost the series 2-1.

Just like that, UCLA’s season was over, and Kentucky was the team jumping and cheering at Easton Stadium.

“There’s nothing that I can say (to my team) at this point that’s going to take away all the frustration, the emotion, of what we just experienced,” said coach Kelly Inouye-Perez after Sunday’s doubleheader.

On Saturday, however, Kentucky was the team that was feeling frustrated.

The Wildcats squandered a 4-2 sixth-inning lead, and committed two key defensive errors that led to six unearned runs. When Spaulding hit the sixth-inning grand slam, Kentucky’s pitcher immediately crouched over in disappointment, while Spaulding raised her arms in excitement.

After winning the first game of a three-game series in such a dramatic fashion, it looked as if UCLA would have all the momentum going into game two on Sunday afternoon.

But the roles were entirely reversed on Sunday. Kentucky came out playing solid defense, while UCLA committed two defensive errors early on. The Wildcats jumped out to a 5-1 lead after the first inning, showing that they were not ready to pack up and go back home just yet.

The Bruins rallied to cut the the Wildcats’ lead to 5-3, but were unable to muster enough magic to produce their 21st comeback victory of the season. Kentucky ended up winning the second game of the series 7-3, forcing a deciding game three.

In the final game, things unraveled for UCLA, and Kentucky gained control of the series.

With one out in the fourth inning, the Wildcats broke a 1-1 tie with an RBI double that put them in front 2-1. At this point, Kentucky was gaining momentum, but it still seemed plausible for the Bruins to mount a comeback.

But one play turned the momentum from being slightly in Kentucky’s favor to entirely in Kentucky’s favor.

With two outs in the inning, Kentucky hit a ground ball to first base that looked like it would get UCLA out of the jam. But right when it appeared that the Bruins would get the final out and keep the score at 2-1, the ball took a strange hop, and eluded the glove of senior first baseman Alyssa Tiumalu.

The ball continued to roll toward the outfield grass, allowing two Kentucky baserunners to score. After the play, Tiumalu slammed her glove to her hand in frustration, as the unusual single had extended Kentucky’s lead to 4-1.

From that point forward, Easton Stadium was silent for the most part, other than a few cheers from the visiting Kentucky fans. The Wildcats (49-17) would not surrender their lead like they did on Saturday, as they won 7-1 to advance to the Women’s College World Series.

For UCLA (52-8), the strange ground ball to first base was a microcosm of a Sunday afternoon that simply didn’t go the Bruins’ way.

“It definitely wasn’t our best day of ball,” said junior pitcher Ally Carda. “Offensively and defensively, we made a lot of errors on defense but we also didn’t back it with our bats. So it just wasn’t our game.”