JANA SUMMERS Claire Sua, shown at bat
against Cal on April 27, hit what would be the decisive home run in
Wednesday’s 4-3 win vs. Washington. UCLA 4
Washington 3
By Andrew Borders
Daily Bruin Reporter
At the halfway point of the quarter, Wednesday’s game
against the No. 12 Washington Huskies (33-19, 7-8) was one the No.
2 UCLA Bruins (50-4, 11-4 Pac-10) would’ve liked to take
pass/fail.
The good news for UCLA was that they passed, though just barely,
defeating Washington 4-3.
But UCLA junior catcher Stacey Nuveman said that, as long as the
game goes into the win column for the Bruins, she’ll take
it.
“The Pac-10 is so stiff that a win is a win and
we’re going to take every one we can get,” she said.
“Most importantly, we swept Washington this year, and
that’s something we haven’t done in a few
years.”
In fact, the Bruins haven’t swept the Huskies since 1994,
when Nuveman was still a high school sophomore in the San Gabriel
Valley.
The freshman dual between of UCLA’s Keira Goerl (22-1) and
Washington’s Tia Bollinger (29-5), went all seven innings
Wednesday. As on April 13 when they met for the first time, the two
just about matched numbers. All seven runs in the game were
unearned, as each team made an error in the other’s crucial
offensive inning. Both pitchers gave up six hits, but Goerl struck
out eight and walked one, compared to four strikeouts and no walks
for Bollinger.
No one from either team made it past second base until the sixth
inning, when UCLA built a four-run lead.
A couple of softballs got a nice view of picturesque Lake
Washington, courtesy of left-field blasts by Nuveman and freshman
Claire Sua.
Nuveman’s homer was her 15th of the season, bringing in
freshman Stephanie Ramos and sophomore Tairia Mims, with whom she
now shares the team lead in that category. Sua’s home run was
a solo shot.
“It was great to see Stacey Nuveman come through like she
did,” UCLA Head Coach Sue Enquist said. “Claire Sua hit
the ball really well today.”
The four runs in the inning were unearned because Husky senior
Kim DePaul made an error, allowing Mims to reach base when she
would have been the third out of the inning. Therefore, any runs
after that didn’t count against Bollinger’s ERA, as the
Huskies should have been out of the inning.
Washington’s comeback happened in the bottom of the
seventh inning. With two outs and the bases loaded, freshman
Courtney Jeffries hit a base-clearing double, making the score
4-3.
The Bruins were able to end the Washington threat when Goerl
struck out freshman and Norwalk native Rita Roach for the final
out.
Junior Crissy Buck errored in trying to make UW freshman Amanda
Oleson the second out of the inning, which would have made
sophomore Jaime Clark the third. Therefore all three of the runs
that scored after Buck’s error didn’t count against
Goerl’s ERA.
“Keira did a great job. We just have to do a better job of
really being sharp in that seventh inning,” Enquist said.
However, Enquist said that Goerl was not without blame.
“I told Keira I felt that she cracked that door for
(Washington),” she said. “I know our defense broke
down, but she cracked that door for them.”
The win brought the Bruins within two games of
conference-leading Arizona, but UCLA fell farther behind No. 1 in
Wednesday’s NFCA/USA Today poll. The Wildcats took five more
first-place votes from UCLA to amass 26 of the 27 ballots.