By Greg Lewis
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
In games that seemingly mean little in the standings, the No. 3
UCLA softball team knocked in a total of 23 runs en route to
sweeping three games against the Oregon schools.
Friday’s game against the No. 13 Oregon State Beavers
(36-17, 6-12 Pac-10) was close for only half an inning. The Bruins
(39-11, 14-7 Pac-10) jumped out to a 6-1 lead by the second inning
and eventually won by the same score. UCLA then kept its momentum
in Saturday’s doubleheader, shooting down No. 16
Oregon’s hopes for an upset. They beat the Ducks (34-27, 6-13
Pac-10) 5-2 in the first game and 12-4 in the second.
“These games didn’t mean much in the standings, so
we played them for ourselves. We were trying to build
momentum,” said freshman shortstop Natasha Watley, who went
4-for-4 in the final game, and 7-of-12 on the weekend. Watley
finished the regular season leading the Bruins in batting average
at .427.
UCLA achieved its goal of preparing for the playoffs, clinching
third place in the Pac-10 standings.
After a disappointing 4-1 loss to top-ranked Washington on
Wednesday, the Bruins desperately needed a change of pace, and that
is exactly what they got.
“I’m really glad the bats came alive today,”
UCLA head coach Sue Enquist said. “We still need to shore up
the defense a little bit, but we are in a good place right
now.”
Against OSU, Bruin pitcher Amanda Freed (21-7) put the first
pitch from Beaver pitcher Tarrah Beyster on the right field wall
for a triple, then came home on a wild pitch to start off the
four-run first inning for the Bruins. Watley followed with a single
and a stolen base and eventually came home on a Tairia Mims single
to center.
With the steal, Watley tied UCLA’s single-season stolen
base record with 25. Crissy Buck followed Mims’ RBI single
with a two-run blooper to center, scoring Julie Adams and Lyndsey
Klein for the third and fourth runs.
The Bruins put two more on the scoreboard in the next inning
when Freed led off the inning with a walk and Watley and Adams
followed with singles. Klein walked with the bases loaded to score
Freed, and Dale drove Watley home with a fielder’s choice to
short.
That was more than enough for Freed, who struck out four and
allowed only one run in the first inning.
The Bruins started off Saturday a little slower, this time
waiting until the third inning to score. Mims led off the bottom of
the inning with a walk, and UCLA took advantage of sub-par defense
by the Ducks to score three runs before the frame was up.
Crissy Buck beat out a bunt for a single, and Mims took third as
Duck first baseman Christie Shelton had a momentary lapse in
concentration. After Shelton finally threw to third, Buck took
second. Lupe Brambila singled home Mims, and Buck scored on a wild
pitch.
Courtney Dale (8-3), who pitched her first complete game since
returning from a shoulder injury in March, gave the Bruins a solid
performance, retiring 13 of the first 15 batters she faced before
finally giving up the Ducks’ only two runs of the game on a
Holly Ray homer to left. Dale threw over 80 pitches, surpassing her
60-pitch limit of previous weeks.
“My shoulder feels great. My goal today was to finish the
game,” Dale said. The ability of Dale, a first-team
All-American and 1999’s Pac-10 Pitcher of the Year, to pitch
a full game adds depth to a staff that already boasts 2000
All-Pac-10 team pitchers Amanda Freed and Stephanie Swenson.
The second game of the day, like the first, was all UCLA. The
UCLA box score looked more like a golf card, as the Bruins scored
in every inning except the fifth, eventually mercy-ruling the
visiting Ducks. Every Bruin had at least one hit in the game,
highlighted by Watley’s four hit outburst and her 26th and
27th steals of the season, which broke 2000 Olympian Christie
Ambrosi’s single-season record. The career record, also held
by Ambrosi, is 31.
“I didn’t even know what the record was. I
didn’t know I broke it until Christie (Ambrosi) teased me
about it,” Watley said.
All four runs off of Freed were unearned, and the Bruins went
14-of-30 in the game with Freed collecting two doubles and Watley
one. Freed’s second double put the mercy rule into effect in
the sixth, knocking home the 11th and 12th runs of the game for
UCLA.
After the game, UCLA had a team meeting to talk about the
postseason.
“I’m nervous,” Watley said. “But I know
that the playoffs are the time to turn it on. We built a lot of
momentum that we’ll be able to take there.”
“The postseason is tension,” said Dale, who got the
win in last year’s championship game against Washington.
“Everybody has to be at their best.”
The team will meet again on Monday to discuss the teams they
will be facing in the regionals. There are eight regionals with six
teams each, with the winner of each double-elimination regional
advancing to the College World Series in Oklahoma City.