This post was updated March 13 at 10:00 p.m.
Deja vu.
For the second time in three games, the Bruins were tied in the seventh inning with the bases loaded.
This time, it was Jadelyn Allchin who entered the batter’s box with the opportunity to become the night’s hero.
The graduate student outfielder slapped a walk-off single as No. 16 UCLA softball (15-6, 3-0 Pac-12) defeated Rutgers (15-10) by a score of 7-6 Tuesday at Easton Stadium. Just as sophomore utility Megan Grant hit a bases-loaded walk-off single Saturday, Allchin ended the mid-week Big Ten preview with one of her own.
“We continue to fight and come back, even if it takes to the end of the game,” said junior catcher Jayla Castro. “We find that energy in each other to just punch back. There’s no giving up on this team.”
The Bruins kicked off the affair scoring a run in the first. However, Scarlet Knight outfielder Kayla Bock provided Rutgers with an early 3-1 advantage with a three-run home run over the right field wall.
But the deficit wouldn’t stand for long.
An RBI double off the wall from redshirt senior catcher Sharlize Palacios brought the Bruins within one, and sophomore infielder Jordan Woolery’s second RBI of the night knotted the game in the third.
After allowing traffic on the base paths in the fourth inning, junior pitcher Jada Cecil was pulled for freshman pitcher/outfielder Kaitlyn Terry, who struck out the first batter she faced and induced a groundout to get the Bruins back on offense.
Set up by a walk from senior utility Thessa Malau’ulu and a base hit by Castro – her first of the year – UCLA picked up another pair of runs to build a 5-3 lead, courtesy of RBI singles from redshirt senior shortstop Maya Brady and Palacios.
“Jayla hasn’t played in a game in a while and you can see she clearly handled it,” said coach Kelly Inouye-Perez. “She just went in, and it didn’t seem like there was somebody back there that didn’t know what they were doing. She did a great job.”
Terry picked up another clean inning in the fifth, but not without some help from her defense. With runners on first and second and no outs, Rutgers utility LA Matthews squared up to bunt.
Malau’ulu crept down the third-base line after seeing the Scarlet Knight batter show bunt. Once she made contact, the ball popped into the air, and the senior utility swiftly snagged it and fired to first to double off the runner.
“Jordan literally called it right before that,” Malau’ulu said. “She looked at me and goes, ‘See the ball up.’”
A sixth-inning RBI double from Brady padded the lead, and with a chance to close the game out, Terry trotted back out into the circle with a three-run cushion.
But by the time the Bruins were back in the dugout, they led no longer.
A hit batter and a pair of walks were quickly followed by two hits and another hit batter. A 6-3 lead became a tied game with the Scarlet Knights loading the bases with just one out.
Terry rebounded and found her form, striking out the next two hitters – totaling seven punch outs through 3.2 innings – and holding the Scarlet Knights at six with UCLA’s bottom of the order due up.
“She’s just ready to fire,” Castro said. “Her just flipping her mindset into ‘I just need to go pitch by pitch and get this out’ is huge.”
Three consecutive walks by Malau’ulu, redshirt junior outfielder Madison Pacini, and redshirt senior outfielder Janelle Meoño turned the lineup over for Allchin to win the game.
The Bruins return to Easton Stadium on Saturday for a double-header against Loyola Marymount.
“Good teams find a way to win,” said Inouye-Perez. “I’ll take this dirty dub, and we’ll just keep moving forward and get ready for LMU.”
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