An exasperated Megan Langenfeld ran off the field in the second inning with fire in her eyes.
The freshman pitcher’s emotions had fallen victim to a series of bloop hits, unfavorable calls and an untimely fielding error that caused her to surrender four runs in the second inning to a red-hot Arizona team.
But as the Bruin offense began to pick up their pitcher, Langenfeld turned what could have been an overwhelmingly frustrating game into the best night of her young Bruin career.
Thursday night, Langenfeld shut down the Wildcats on the mound the rest of the way and smacked a three-run home run as No. 13 UCLA (35-15, 11-8 Pac-10) rallied from a four-run deficit to defeat No. 4 Arizona (38-11-1, 14-4-1) 7-4 in the first game of the team’s three-game road trip in the desert.
“The girls fought behind their pitcher,” coach Kelly Inouye-Perez said. “She wasn’t getting calls at the plate and the team picked her up. We said, we’re going to beat them without any help.”
After the Bruins tied the game in the top of the third inning (highlighted by junior outfielder Krista Colburn’s three-run home run), Langenfeld shut down the Wildcat offense, allowing just three hits and no runs in her final five innings of work.
Langenfeld’s dramatic home run in the fifth inning off of star Wildcat junior pitcher Taryne Mowatt gave the Bruins the lead.
“It was kind of surreal,” Langenfeld said of her home run. “I didn’t think that it really happened. It felt incredible once I touched home plate.”
In addition to Langenfeld’s heroics, Inouye-Perez also gave credit to her veteran players, particularly senior catcher Jaisa Creps and senior first baseman Lisa Dodd, for being able to use their experience to get Langenfeld out of a jam and for picking her up when they needed to.
“I think the most impressive thing about tonight was the experience that came through,” Inouye-Perez said. “The team allowed (Langenfeld) to come back into our game. Lisa Dodd was in Megan’s ear the entire game telling her that we can pull this game out and Megan believed her.”
The win over Arizona, who had just clinched the Pac-10 title last weekend, is arguably the biggest victory of the season so far for the Bruins. UCLA snapped a 16-game Wildcat home win-streak with the win. Even more importantly, UCLA likely secured home-field advantage for NCAA Regional play next weekend.
UP NEXT: UCLA finishes up the regular season by venturing to Tempe for a two-game set with No. 9 Arizona State beginning today at 7 p.m.
The Sun Devils (48-12, 12-7) defeated Washington 2-1 on Thursday night to take sole possession of second place in the Pac-10.
The Bruins play the first game of the series today at 7 p.m. and wrap up their season on Saturday at 1 p.m. in a game that will be televised live on Fox Sports Net.
In the Bruins’ first meeting with the Sun Devils back in March, Arizona State trounced UCLA 6-0. In that game, Sun Devil junior pitcher Katie Burkhart dominated the Bruins, allowing just one hit and striking out eight while tossing a complete-game shutout.
“We’re just a different team now,” Inouye-Perez said.”We let them have a lot defensively (in the first game) and we couldn’t recover emotionally, but we’re clearly a different team now than the first time in Pac-10.”