The UCLA softball team was well on its way toward another tournament sweep only to come up short at the very end.
The No. 3 Bruins (23-3) finished another weekend of tournament play going 4-1 in the Long Beach State Invitational. The latest loss snapped an 18-game winning streak that began with a 9-6 victory against Kentucky on Feb. 14.
Certainly disappointed, the team understands full well that a perfect weekend outing was theirs to lose.
“At some point, if we don’t do the little things, the game won’t pay us back,” coach Kelly Inouye-Perez said. “At the end, we simply weren’t able to execute. But if anything, this was just a reminder that the game doesn’t always come that easy, and we’ll have to figure it out before June.”
In search of their fifth win in the Invitational, the Bruins faced off against host Long Beach State in the last game of the weekend only to sputter to a disappointing 2-1 loss. The UCLA offense had a rough outing, putting up just two hits and one run against the 49ers. Sophomore Donna Kerr for her part struggled as well, giving up four hits, two runs (one earned) and five walks in six innings.
Though the Bruins dropped Sunday’s finale, they started things off the weekend with a 5-3 win over Florida International followed by a thrilling 2-1 victory against Iowa on Friday.
In the first game against the Golden Panthers, junior catcher Kaila Shull led the team with the bat, going a perfect 3-for-3 at the plate with three runs batted in. In the circle, junior pitcher Whitney Baker did just enough to stave off the Panthers, giving up three runs, five hits and four walks in six innings.
The second game of Friday’s doubleheader featured a pitcher’s duel that carried the game into extra innings. Iowa senior center fielder Sam Heinzman’s single in the top of the eighth drove in the first run of the game and gave the Hawkeyes a 1-0 lead that did not last long.
Under international tiebreaker rules, the Bruins placed sophomore shortstop Monica Harrison at second base in the bottom half of the inning and moved her to third on a sacrifice by senior second baseman Amanda Kamekona. Junior center fielder Katie Schroeder then came to the plate and belted a walk-off home run to center, clinching the game for the Bruins in dramatic fashion.
After Friday night’s dramatics, UCLA breezed through its third game of the Invitational, drubbing Syracuse 11-0 in only five innings. Shull led the offense again with another 3-for-3 performance at the plate and Kerr went the distance in the circle, tossing a one-hitter and stifling the Orange offense.
The Bruins displayed its speed in the first game on Sunday against Longwood, stealing eight bases on their way to a 12-2 win. Sophomore first baseman GiOnna DiSalvatore had a field day against the Lancers, going 4-for-4 with two RBI and three runs scored.
Yet the Bruins were not able to seal their weekend with a victory over Long Beach State.
“Overall, we needed to do a better job of executing and not giving free rides, which I wasn’t able to do,” Kerr said. “But we can’t dwell on this (loss) too much because in the end, we just need to move on.”
The Bruins return home to play a game against Notre Dame at 2 p.m. at Easton Stadium on Tuesday. The Fighting Irish are 6-6 on the season after going 3-1 this past weekend at the UNLV Invitational.