OKLAHOMA CITY “”mdash; Some stood and watched. Others cried and
hung their heads. It was a feeling nearly all the Bruins had never
experienced before.
For the first time in three years, the UCLA softball team
won’t be coming back to Westwood from the College World
Series with a championship trophy. The Bruins will have to settle
for the runner-up spot after falling to Michigan 4-1 in 10 innings
in Game 3 of the championship series Wednesday night.
“They were devastated,” UCLA coach Sue Enquist
said.
While the Bruins (40-20) had been a team that had thrived all
year when their backs were up against the wall, it was the
top-seeded Wolverines (65-7) that came through when it counted.
In the top of the 10th inning on Wednesday, with two outs and
the game knotted at 1-1, Michigan freshman Samantha Findlay belted
a three-run home run well over the left-field fence to give the
Wolverines their first lead of the game.
“You people don’t know what it’s like to carry
that No. 1 ranking, to maintain it, sustain it, and to absorb the
blows that we tried to give them,” Enquist said. “And
at the end, they’re the champions. It’s
well-deserved.”
Holding a lead in the late innings of Games 2 and 3 of the
championship series was not a position that many expected the
Bruins to be in after finishing the season in fifth place in the
Pac-10. UCLA’s 20 losses were the second most in the softball
program’s history.
But after Lisa Dodd’s two-out solo home run in the second
inning, it looked like UCLA might be the first team to win three
consecutive titles since the Bruins did it from 1988-1990. But that
lead, like UCLA’s two-run lead on Tuesday, did not stand
up.
In the sixth inning, Michigan loaded the bases with no outs
after UCLA freshman pitcher Anjelica Selden surrendered two singles
and a walk when Findlay hit a game-tying RBI single to right
field.
Unlike Game 2 the day before, when the Wolverines kept piling on
runs in their four-run fifth inning en route to winning 5-2, UCLA
was able to stop the bleeding. Michigan’s Nicole Motycka hit
a line drive right at third baseman Andrea Duran, who tagged
Alessandra Giampolo out for a double play. Selden then struck out
Grace Leutele to end the inning.
But UCLA, which had been so clutch in so many big games
throughout the year, couldn’t take advantage of Duran’s
play and score the winning run.
The Bruins’ best chance to win the game and the
championship came in the bottom of the ninth, when Kristen Dedmon
led the inning off with a double that bounced off of a diving
Giampolo in center field. After a Krista Colburn sacrifice bunt and
a Dodd walk, Ashley Herrera came up with a chance to be the hero,
but popped out to second base. Duran was then intentionally walked,
and Tara Henry grounded out to third base to end the threat.
“Anytime you get a double with no outs against a great
pitcher like Jennie Ritter, it gives your team a lot of
hope,” Dodd said. “She’s a good
pitcher.”
Ritter had kept the UCLA bats at bay for most of the three-game
series. After the Wolverines scored their first run on Wednesday,
she retired the next nine Bruins in order. Unable to close the
door, the Bruins helped open it for Michigan in the decisive 10th
inning.
On Wednesday, normally sure-handed shortstop Jodie Legaspi
committed a fielding error that gave the Wolverines a runner on
first instead of no one on and two outs. One day earlier, Legaspi
had also made an error during Michigan’s four-run
fifth-inning.
After giving up an infield single to put runners on first and
second, Selden struck out the next batter and appeared to have
worked herself out of the jam.
But Findlay wouldn’t let her escape. The Wolverines, who
led the nation in home runs, came up with one in the most crucial
situation.
“Nothing was really harder than any other inning,”
Selden said. “I just felt like I needed to be more
disciplined with my pitching and not give them anything they could
hit.”
For almost an entire week, she succeeded at that. But all it
took was one pitch to change everything.