By Bruce Tran
Daily Bruin Contributor
Entering Sunday, the UCLA women’s softball team knew it
needed three consecutive victories to win the National Invitational
Softball Tournament at San Jose State.
They never got the chance.
The NIST was rained out, resulting in the cancellation of
Sunday’s games and crowning Arizona State as the tournament
champion.
The Bruins finished 5-1 in the tournament, while the Sun Devils
went 3-0. The two teams never met each other.
The tournament started Friday with a 4-1 victory over Long Beach
State, who had given UCLA (28-3) one of its losses earlier in the
season.
Tairia Mims, Stacey Nuveman and Natasha Watley each had a double
and triple apiece. Meanwhile, Amanda Freed struck out eight batters
in seven innings of work.
The pitching continued to dominate in the remainder of
Friday’s games, shutting out both UNC Greensboro, 8-0, and
No. 17 Iowa State, 4-0.
Against UNC Greensboro, the Bruin bats clanged early and often,
as UCLA scratched out 14 hits.
Pitching duties were split between Claire Sua and Keira Goerl,
who each pitched three innings in the circle.
Despite pitching three innings against UNC Greensboro earlier
Friday evening, Goerl showed no signs of fatigue en route to her
fourth no-hitter of the season. She struck out 12 while only
walking two.
Saturday opened in the same manner Friday ended ““ only
this time, it was Amanda Freed who tossed the no-hitter. She struck
out 10 in seven innings of work in a 2-0 victory over Virginia.
However, in the next game, Iowa exacted revenge for its earlier
loss to UCLA, blanking the Bruins for a 1-0 victory.
Iowa’s Kristi Hanks gave up only one hit for the Hawkeyes
““ a Freed triple in the seventh.
The Bruins couldn’t capitalize, as Freed was thrown out at
the plate.
UCLA concluded Saturday’s play with a 3-0 victory over
Virginia later that evening, it’s second over the Cavaliers
in the tournament.