Monday, March 31, 1997
SOFTBALL:
Players defeat OSU, Oregon and hand loss to Stanford, ArizonaBy
Melissa Anderson
Daily Bruin Staff
It was hailed as a battle between two superpowers, the Superman
and Batman of the collegiate softball world if you will. And to
those who came back early from spring break to witness it,
Saturday’s duel between top-ranked Arizona and the No. 3 Bruins did
not disappoint anyone.
After dropping the opener, 4-1, to the Wildcats in a game which
could have gone either way, UCLA came back in the finale to hand
Arizona a 5-1 loss, its second of the season and first in
conference play.
In the nightcap, the Bruins (27-6, 9-3 Pac-10) struck early as
Alleah Poulson knocked in Christie Ambrosi for a 1-0 lead in the
first. Later in that inning, third baseman Julie Adams stepped up
and launched an 0-2 pitch over the center field wall with two
runners on base, putting UCLA up 4-1.
"I just go up and swing and try to hit the ball," Adams said of
the home run. "If it goes out, it goes out."
Adams, who was 5-for-5 in game two, played with an injured
shoulder  an old injury which was aggravated in the first
game. She will probably sit out of practice this week, as will
Ambrosi, who broke her left hand during a pick-off play early in
the first game but went on to play through both games.
With freshman Christa Williams on the mound, the ‘Cats could
find none of the offensive spark which led them to victory in the
first game. While Arizona (31-2, 5-1) racked up seven hits, mostly
in the infield, it simply was not able to convert them into
runs.
The Bruins were silenced after that explosive first inning
before Kim Wuest broke out of a 1-for-24 slump with her first home
run since Feb. 3 to cap the scoring in the sixth inning.
The Bruins might have swept the ‘Cats if starter B’Ann Burns
could only have one pitch back. Burns scattered 12 hits over seven
innings, but UA needed only one to serve as the Bruin-killer. With
both teams scoreless through three innings, Lety Pineda knocked her
conference-leading 13th homer into left field to put Arizona up,
3-0.
Courtney Dale struck back with her second bomb of the season to
put UCLA on the board, but the Bruins couldn’t capitalize on the
runners they put in scoring position, and that was all they would
get.
Still, a split with a team UCLA hadn’t defeated in six meetings
 since the national title game in 1995  is enough to
make the Bruins feel as if the season is headed in the right
direction.
"We’re feeling really good," Ambrosi said. "We wanted to win
both games, but after losing the first game and coming back to win
the second, we showed them we were fighters."
* * *
The Bruins cruised through the early part of the break, knocking
off Oregon and Oregon State in two conference double headers at
Easton Stadium.
On March 22, UCLA swept the Ducks, 13-1, 8-0, behind stellar
pitching performances by Burns and Williams. In the opener, Burns
got the win and broke the school record for appearances set by Lisa
Longaker with her 114th trip to the mound. Not to be upstaged by
the senior, the freshman Williams threw her first career no-hitter
in the nightcap. It was the first conference no-hitter for UCLA
since 1995.
Against OSU, the Bruins cruised to a 5-2 win in game one as
Burns recorded her 87th career victory. Williams gave up just one
hit to shut down the Beavers for an 8-0 victory in the final game.
Freshman Stacey Nuveman belted her 12th home run of the season
while Nicole Ochoa added her second in as many games and her fourth
on the year as UCLA extended its winning streak to 21.
Just past the halfway mark of the season, Nuveman is only two
longballs short of the UCLA single-season record, and with a hit in
both Arizona games, she has compiled a 25-game hitting streak.
Meanwhile, Williams is showing what an Olympian is made of,
allowing just one hit in 22 innings of work before the Arizona
match-up, while holding opponents scoreless through 42-2/3
innings.
All good things must come to an end however, and UCLA found a
spoiler in the form of Stanford, which ended the Bruin win streak
with a 6-5 extra-inning victory in the opener. UCLA found itself
down, 5-1, going into the bottom of the seventh, but scored four
runs in the inning, led by Ochoa’s two-run blast (her third in
three games). Ambrosi followed with a triple to drive in Dale (who
walked) and then scored the tying run on a Laurie Fritz single.
The Bruins held on in a defensive battle for two more innings
before Stanford’s Lauren Gellman singled home Kelly Yablonski under
international tie-break rules, where teams begin each extra inning
with a runner on second base.
In the second game, Dale had a no-hitter heading into the fifth
inning before giving up a double. The Bruins jumped to a quick 3-0
lead in the third and received a solid performance from Ambrosi,
who was 5-9 against Stanford scoring two runs and an RBI.
CHARLES KUO/Daily Bruin
UCLA freshman Christa Williams pitches a no-hitter against
Oregon, part of a scoreless streak lasting 42 2/3 innings.