Keira Goerl may have pitched 19 innings of scoreless ball during
the UCLA softball team’s first-place finish at the Florida
Atlantic Worth Invitational, but she’s not impressed.
“I thought I did all right,” she said. “I need
to be sharper on the mound, and work on some of my
pitches.”
Goerl threw a one-hitter in each of her three starts over the
weekend as the No. 1 Bruins won their five games by a combined
score of 33-1, improving to 15-1 on the season while winning their
14th consecutive game.
In Sunday’s championship game, UCLA faced Rutgers for the
second time in the tournament and clobbered them 8-0 (5 innings,
mercy rule). Although the Bruins crushed the Scarlet Knights 8-1
the first time they met, the championship game was close until the
fifth inning, when the Bruins exploded for six runs.
“I felt like the game was difficult emotionally,”
head coach Sue Enquist said. “We hit that team pretty well
the first time and the players weren’t as sharp mentally
going into the game. I’m thankful they got it
together.”
UCLA scored its first two runs of the game in the second inning,
when right fielder Caitlin Benyi was hit by a pitch with the bases
loaded. Shortstop Natasha Watley then hit a sacrifice fly.
Goerl kept the Bruins in the lead by not allowing a Scarlet
Knight to reach scoring position.
Then came the fifth. UCLA’s Monique Mejia started the
inning off with a walk, which was followed by consecutive singles
by Tairia Mims and Claire Sua, a double by Toria Auelua, and
singles by Andrea Duran, Benyi, and Watley to end the championship
game early.
“The fifth inning was huge for us,” Sua said.
“We were all hitting the ball well, and it was a really good
way to end the weekend.”
The tournament marked a homecoming for Sua, who is from Copper
City, Fla. She made the most of it, going 6-for-14 with a home run
and seven RBI for the weekend.
“I’d be lying if I told you that hitting well in
front of my family wasn’t special,” Sua said. “I
always want to do well, but it was special this weekend.”
UCLA had two games Saturday, a 3-0 victory over Florida
International, and a 7-0 win against Long Island.
The game against FIU was the Bruins’ closest game of the
tournament. UCLA scored a run in the first inning when Mims got an
RBI single, bringing home Mejia.
In the third inning, after singles by Watley and Stephanie Ramos
and a walk by Mims, Sua came to the plate with two outs. She hit a
single, driving in two runs.
In the circle, Michelle Turner pitched a three-hit shutout,
striking out four.
“Turner’s pitching was a huge positive for
us,” Enquist said. “The more innings I give her, the
better she does.”
In the game against Long Island, the Bruins only led 2-0 going
into the sixth inning, but again, the Bruins got a big inning late
in a game, scoring five, highlighted by a three-run triple by
Watley.
In Friday’s Rutgers game, Turner pitched seven innings,
allowing one unearned run to pick up the victory.
Benyi went 3-for-4 with a triple and an RBI in the game.
In their other game on Friday, the Bruins beat Florida Atlantic
7-0.
Watley and Sua hit home runs in the first inning, and Benyi
walloped a two-run double in the sixth to contribute to the
win.
For the tournament, several Bruins hit exceptionally well. Benyi
went 7-for-15 with five RBI, Watley went 8-for-16 with 10 RBI and a
home run, and Mims boosted her team-leading batting average to .605
with her 8-for-13, four RBI performance.