By Vytas Mazeika
Daily Bruin Reporter
The numbers never lie, and in the case of the UCLA softball
team, the numbers have plenty of truth to tell.
The Bruins were bound for Oklahoma City even before the first
pitch was thrown on Thursday. Six teams played in the NCAA Regional
at Easton Stadium, but realistically, only UCLA had a shot at
reaching the Women’s College World Series.
Defensively, UCLA didn’t commit an error in four
games.
Pitching-wise, they allowed only six hits in 24 innings. The
Bruins walked four batters, while striking out 23. An opposing
runner reached third base only three times, and only one crossed
home plate.
Offensively, UCLA outscored the other five teams 31-29. The
Bruins batted .417 as a group, while the rest of the teams combined
to hit at a .079 clip against UCLA.
“Hats off to (the Bruins),” said San Diego State
Head Coach Kathy Van Wyk, whose team was eliminated Sunday after
losing to UCLA for a second time. “They’re a great
team.”
The jaw-dropping numbers that UCLA created left most fans in
disbelief.
Two senior pitchers, Cal State Northridge’s Sarah
Farnworth and SDSU’s Sandra Durazo were tagged with nine runs
each in the final starts of their college careers.
The relentless Bruin attack came from the very beginning and
culminated with a mercy-rule victory ““ much to the pleasure
of UCLA Head Coach Sue Enquist.
“The one thing we’ve been challenging (our hitters)
this week is on how quickly can you get in your flow,”
Enquist said. “We always talk about how anybody can create
momentum. It’s swinging at strikes and getting
on-base.”
On Friday, the Bruins made Farnworth throw 50 pitches in the
first two innings, and her tired arm became obvious in the sixth
and seventh innings, when UCLA tagged her for three and five runs
respectively en route to a 9-0 win.
Numbers, numbers and more numbers kept telling the story for the
Bruins.
UCLA was nine-for-nine in stolen base attempts. The Bruins had
seven out of the twelve All-Tournament Team members, including Most
Outstanding Player Tairia Mims. The sophomore first baseman batted
.467 in the Regional, and her five RBIs tied her for second with
UCLA freshman outfielder Stephanie Ramos. Bruin pitcher/right
fielder Courtney Dale led the tournament with eight RBIs ““
including a pair that came thanks to a home run in Dale’s
final at-bat at Easton Stadium.
Power numbers were also telling in the Regional for the Bruins,
but in the case of Pac-10 Player of the Year Stacey Nuveman,
actions spoke louder than numbers.
Often walked rather than given an opportunity to punish, Nuveman
was able to connect on two monstrous home runs. The first was a
shot on Friday against Farnworth that cleared the scoreboard in
left field by close to ten feet. The second was a mammoth home run
on Sunday against Durazo that could have reached Sunset Boulevard
had a tree not gotten in the way 50 feet up in the air. A branch
could be seen falling down, the victim of Nuveman’s
power.
“Crissy Buck said, “˜You’re going to get a
blooper this inning’ and then she says, “˜You got your
blooper,'” Nuveman said when asked about her home run
on Friday. “Sometimes you just take a hack.”
Now, UCLA gets to hack for even bigger numbers in Oklahoma
City.