The UCLA softball team finished their regular season strongly by winning via the mercy-rule in both games against Utah.
The No. 14 Bruins (35-13-1, 16-5-1 Pac-12) recorded their sixth-straight weekend series win against a conference opponent by sweeping the unranked Utes (31-17, 12-8 ). Sunday’s contest was cancelled due to rain and will not be made up this season.
UCLA stayed at second place in the Pac-12 with its two wins and pushed Utah down to the fourth spot. The Bruins will finish runner-up in the conference to the No. 3 Oregon Ducks for the third year in a row.
The UCLA bats proved to be too much for Utah’s pitching staff this weekend. Coming into the matchup, the Bruins had scored six or more runs in seven of their last eight games.
They added to that total Friday after Utah junior outfielder Delilah Pacheco misplayed a fly ball hit by UCLA junior outfielder Gabrielle Maurice in the first inning, allowing three runs to score.
UCLA continued to add to its score in the top of the second, tacking on five more runs to take a commanding 8-2 lead.
Although the Bruins’ bats were hot, their pitching again struggled to keep the Utes’ high-powered offense from scoring. During the bottom of the third inning, sophomore pitcher Selina Ta’amilo allowed Utah to shrink UCLA’s lead down to one.
But like the Bruins have done so many times this year, the offense kicked it into gear during the last two innings and had no trouble adding another seven runs. With a 12-7 lead, freshman first baseman Brianna Tautalafua sealed the UCLA win by knocking a three-run home run.
The home run was Tautalafua’s sixth of the season, and she credited it to her teammates’ ability to set her up for good pitches.
“We’ve been seeing the ball all the way through really well,” Tautalafua said. “We’re doing really well getting on base.”
Saturday’s game saw the Bruins again jump out to an early lead. The offense – fueled by Tautalafua’s second home run of the weekend – scored eight runs off of the Utes’ two pitchers.
Ta’amilo was back on the mound to start the second game after her poor outing Friday. In between her two starts, Ta’amilo noticed that she was rushing to throw her pitches, causing her to fall behind in the count early on.
“We looked at the film and I realized that I just needed to slow it down,” Ta’amilo said. “The next day, I flipped my mentality and focused on dialing in every pitch.
Ta’amilo was nearly unhitable Saturday, pitching six shutout innings en route to her 17th win of the season.
“She came in very convicted on day two after having not the best outcome the night before,” said UCLA coach Kelly Inouye-Perez. “It was impressive to see a pitcher turn it around in less than 24 hours and have a completely different performance.”
With its two wins, UCLA has now won 14 of its last 16 games. The Bruins will have their Pac-12 goodbye this upcoming weekend and will find out who their opponents for the regional round of the postseason will be Sunday.