UCLA’s game versus Cal State Fullerton Tuesday featured a twenty-two minute bee delay, and that might have been the most normal thing about the day.
Both pitchers – sophomore Ally Carda and junior Jessica Hall – had their share of struggles in the circle.
Senior outfielder B.B. Bates and sophomore infielders Stephany LaRosa and Sam Duran were all unable to hold onto the ball on defense.
In short, it was a strange day for UCLA softball, one marred by inconsistent play, as the No. 10 Bruins fell to the Titans 11-5.
Coming off a 5-0 weekend that featured wins over the likes of Tennessee and Louisiana State, the Bruins were unable to get in a rhythm Tuesday. Carda, who earned her first loss of the year in the game, struggled to locate the strike zone throughout the day. The Titans took advantage early and often, getting runs across in all but two innings, as the upstart team was able to pull off the major upset.
“They showed up and played today. They caught us and kept on throwing punches,” said coach Kelly Inouye-Perez.
“We threw some good punches. This team has fight. I know this team has fight. The focus wasn’t there today.”
The Titans were aggressive from the opening pitch. They got the leadoff hitter on in four straight innings, part of the reason why jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the third, and answer with four runs in the fourth after the Bruins had managed to tie the game at three all through three innings.
The Titans were equally effective on the mound as they rotated their pitchers, freshman Jasmine Antunez and sophomore Desiree Ybarra each inning, a strategy that never let the UCLA hitters get in a rhythm. For Hall, however, it was more about what the Bruins didn’t do than anything Fullerton did.
“We’re absolutely going to flush it and move on,” Hall said. “It means nothing. We know we’re better than that. There are some good things we can take away from today. We don’t want to disregard it completely, but we know we are better than that.”
Freshman first baseman Brittany Moeai echoed Hall’s sentiments, not overblowing the meaning of the loss, but instead focusing on how to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
“What’s going to define us is how we pick ourselves up for the next game. This game’s over, nothing we can do about it now, but work for the next one this weekend,” said Moeai.
“We let our guard down. Teams like that are going to jump all over us, so we need to keep working and stay on top of our game.”
Disappointed with her team’s performance Tuesday, Inouye-Perez stressed the need to be more consistent.
“Today was a good lesson of, ‘Respect the game, because anyone is capable of beating you on any given day,’” Inouye-Perez said.