By Andrew Borders
Daily Bruin Reporter
The Bruins and the Washington Huskies played a 14-inning game
Friday at Easton Stadium, UCLA eventually winning 5-4.
Since regulation in softball is seven innings, any plans the
Bruins and Huskies had for after the game were delayed just a
little bit. Two hours to be exact, as the game went four hours and
eight minutes when a usual game is about two hours.
But forget about the post-game activities; these two competitive
Pac-10 squads were playing tug-of-war in a 4-4 deadlock. Until the
Bruins finally took the game in the 14th inning, neither team had
scored since the fourth inning. So how does a rightfielder keep
from succumbing to boredom? Isn’t it tough for a third
baseman to maintain her focus, even at the hot corner?
With the hot afternoon sun blasting down on Easton Stadium, the
rightfielders had it the toughest.
No one wants to be the scapegoat for losing a fly ball in the
brightness, possibly costing her team the game. Fortunately,
nothing like that ended the contest, but Washington’s Traci
Tawney and UCLA’s Lupe Brambila had to be ready.
“(The sun) really wasn’t that bad, with the eye
black,” Tawney said. The sophomore wouldn’t confess to
letting her mind drift from the game in the isolation of the
outfield. “That’s our motto: Be ready for
everything.”
“It’ll drain you a little bit, but we’re used
to it from practice,” Brambila said. “You have to stay
focused and think that the ball is always going to come to
you.”
Meanwhile, in the infield, Bruin sophomore Tairia Mims and the
Husky senior Kim DePaul manned the “hot corner” for all
14 innings. Just as in the outfield, one mistake can cost the game.
Both committed errors, but neither was in the game-ending
inning.
Mims said that the overtime took its toll.
“It’s a little difficult because your body starts to
drain. There’s so many different things to start thinking
about, different situations. So even mentally, it’s tough to
stay in the game,” she said.
She stayed sharp with her teammates’ help as the infield
foursome kept the chatter going. Short of a megaphone, the distant
outfielders didn’t have such a benefit.
Behind the plate, UCLA’s Stacey Nuveman and
Washington’s Amy Hanson took the catching duties from the
first pitch until Bruin freshman Claire Sua’s game-winning
single four hours later.
Nuveman had the extra duty of calling freshman Keira
Goerl’s pitches in addition to the continual standing and
crouching. She played down the physical effects of that.
“Inning after inning, you really don’t feel much
anymore. You can’t let down, you can’t lapse into a
comfort zone or allow yourself to get tired, otherwise the
game’s going to pass you by,” Nuveman said.
“It’s always exciting when you’re going that
long.”
Finally, the forgotten bench warmers. You don’t read their
names very often in the paper, and you might assume that they
don’t have much to do while riding the pine.
Not so, says Husky freshman infielder Robyn Waddle.
“I mainly pinch run, or I’m out (in the bullpen)
catching, warming up pitchers, cheering my team on. I try to
motivate the rest of my team, keep them up,” she said.
Cheering, as the softballers do it, is something unique to the
sport. Don’t hold your breath for the UCLA baseballers to do
an elaborate chant ending in “ah-weeee!” as the
Bruins’ cheer for Brambila does.
“You’ve got to stay into it, knowing you could go in
at any time,” said Bruin freshman Stephanie Ramos, who
didn’t start Friday.
As none of the players admitted to boredom in the extra-long
affair, it looks like a certain reporter was the only one who lost
his edge. When DePaul was asked a question about playing right
field, she tactfully responded “third base.”
Score it as an error on the journalist, that is, if
there’s any room left on your scorecard.