EDWARD LIN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff
The UCLA softball team accepts defeat after making its final out
in the Women’s College World Series.
By Vytas Mazeika
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
[email protected]
OKLAHOMA CITY “”mdash; The scene in the parking lot was
particularly somber. The entire UCLA softball team gathered near
their vans at the Don E. Porter Hall of Fame Stadium, some with
their heads down, others with tears in their eyes.
Music coming from a group of cars some 50 yards away, sounds of
Florida State and Nebraska in pre-game warm-ups, were barely
audible from the far west corner of the darkened lot.
UCLA had just been eliminated from the Women’s College
World Series after a 2-1 loss to Arizona State, and the moment had
only begun to sink in.
“All the way up to that last pitch, everybody on that
field and everybody in the park knew that we were still in
it,” UCLA head coach Sue Enquist said.
But the Bruins, in need of four outs Saturday, had only
three.
With two down in the seventh inning, Natasha Watley swung at the
first pitch and quietly grounded out to the right side. Casey
Hiraiwa was left stranded at third base ““ 60 feet away from
tying the game.
So ended UCLA’s bid for a fourth consecutive NCAA
championship game appearance and its first title since 1999. ASU
would advance to face Cal on Sunday, while the top-seeded Bruins
(55-9) suffered through their worst WCWS ever, losing twice in
three days.
“Any time you head into the World Series, you expect to go
all the way,” senior Stacey Nuveman said. “We battled
and unfortunately, we didn’t get the breaks that we’ve
gotten in the past.”
The damage was done in the third inning. Senior Amanda Freed
began the game in the circle for the Bruins and held the Sun Devils
(46-19) to two walks with no hits in the first two innings. Freed
even got the first two outs in the top of the third with no
trouble, but when third baseman Toria Auelua was unable to glove a
grounder to her left side, the floodgates opened.
Kara Brun singled to left field, and Phelan Wright followed that
with an RBI double, putting runners on second and third. After an
intentional walk, Missy Hixon, who had been dropped in the batting
order to give the bottom of the lineup another player capable of
driving in a run, hit a sharp single to make the score 2-0.
Freed (21-4) got out of the inning by inducing a grounder to
Watley, but she was pulled in favor of Keira Goerl when the fourth
inning began.
“When you come into a big game you like to have your
“˜A’ game all the time, and I didn’t, so I was
just trying to work with what I had,” Freed said. “Like
all good teams, hitters can feed off each other and they got a
little rally going.”
The Bruins had an immediate chance to answer back in the bottom
of the third with a two-out rally of their own. No. 3 hitter Tairia
Mims, though, hit a grounder to Brun at shortstop, who softly
tossed it to second for the force, leaving the bases loaded.
“I think that’s pretty much how the game is,”
Mims said. “It’s such a fast-paced game, and it is just
an inch here and there. I know the score was only 2-1, but
that’s how every game is.”
Goerl tossed four perfect innings against ASU after already
having thrown seven scoreless innings about five hours earlier in
the first elimination game versus Oklahoma. But with UCLA already
down, all eyes were on Erica Beach, the Sun Devil ace.
The Bruin hitters did not even think Beach (33-14), who had ice
on her shoulder, forearm and knees after the game, would pitch. But
she was able to hold UCLA to one run on six hits by changing speeds
and locations effectively throughout.
“I know she’s hurting, and that says a lot more
about the competitor she is,” Nuveman said. “She
didn’t even warm up. She just walked into the circle in the
beginning of the game.”
“The whole game was really intense,” Beach said.
“It was fun to be in; it was fun to watch. It was big to be
able to send someone home and be able to stay here.”
The last big rally for UCLA came in the bottom of the sixth.
With one out, Freed and Mims singled and then Nuveman doubled over
first base and down the right field line. Freed scored, but
pinch-runner Julie Hoshisaki, in for Mims, had to stop at
third.
Beach proceeded to induce a groundout from Claire Sua and snared
a high chopper from Stephanie Ramos to leave UCLA with its final
three outs.
“It’s just disappointing that you put yourself in
the position to tie and win the ballgame a handful of times, and we
just didn’t have the timely hitting when we needed to,”
Enquist said.
All the Bruins could do was enter their vans, drive back to the
hotel and look for the next flight out.