Flashback Friday: UCLA Softball Ends 2019 Season with an NCAA Title

Join us as we relive the thrilling end to the 2019 softball season.

(Photo Credit: Jazmine Sosa/UCLA Athletics)

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Hey gang! Welcome back to the Most Successful Reoccurring Column in The Mighty Bruin History: Flashback Friday! I know everyone missed this column last week, but with the NFL draft going on and UCLA actually having a host of drafted players, I felt we should give that the focus it deserves. But we’re back in the saddle this week, bringing you the same quality content you crave.

Just a reminder of how this works: Every Friday, I’ll write about a game from UCLA’s past that is easily accessible via Youtube/Vimeo/ESPN. This doesn’t have to be the two big sports; honestly, I’d love for there to be some full games or matches from something that isn’t football or men’s basketball, but I have a feeling those two sports will dominate the proceedings. Once a game is selected, I’ll post the game here so you too can watch along. And if you have a game you’d like to see me write about, leave a link to a full video in the comments!

This week, we’re turning our focus to the diamond, and to the ladies. UCLA softball has always been an NCAA powerhouse, with the most championships in NCAA history, but heading into the 2019 season, UCLA hadn’t made the final series of the year since they last won the title in 2010. This was especially frustrating for UCLA fans as the Bruins had enjoyed watching a loaded team in recent seasons, including the reigning National Player of the Year in Rachel Garcia.

And this is where I reveal my flaws because I really did not pay attention to this team until they made it to the WCWS. All throughout the tournament, I had this gut feeling of an eventual UCLA national championship becoming inevitable. I don’t know why, but watching Garcia come out like a player possessed for the entire tournament was awe-inspiring to watch, and I think her virtuoso performance against Washington was when I really felt the tournament was over. It absolutely helped that UCLA looked cohesive behind Garcia and that the Bruins weren’t forcing Garcia to solely carry the load.

All of that said: I did not watch this game live. I had a prior commitment and was busy for most of the game, and I’m fairly certain I annoyed more than a few people by continually trying to check the score on my phone. So really, this is my first time watching the game in its entirety! That’s fun! Let’s get to it.

Early Game

• I love Beth Mowins as a commentator, and Jessica Mendoza is a perfectly fine color commentator when she is allowed to be, so I can’t complain about this setup. Plus it has Holly Rowe on the sidelines, which is always a plus.

• (4:53) I remember Brianna Tautalafua getting absolutely savaged throughout the WCWS for her batting (heading into this game, she was 1-10 in the WCWS, and 1-23 in the entirety of postseason play), but this play really signified why she continued to get the nod at 3rd base. Just to bring my baseball knowledge in, having a plus defender at 3rd is a plus, and I assume that is at an even-bigger premium in softball with the shorter base paths. Oh, and Tautalafua would definitely get the last laugh in this game.

• I have to imagine that if you were an Oklahoma fan, the only thought going through your head as Bubba Nickles and Briana Perez started the game with back-to-back home runs was “oh no not again”. Giselle Juarez would eventually settle down, but Oklahoma’s best pitcher could never get anything going against the Bruins.

• That Bubba Nickles home run swing was just so pretty.

• (20:10) Sometimes as a hitter, it just takes one thing to get you out of a funk. For Tautalafua, getting the home run the night before seemed to do the trick, and she has a confident at-bat here to continue the inning.

• UCLA leaves the bases loaded at the end of the 1st inning, and had Oklahoma come back in this game and eventually won the series, I think you’d look back at this inning as the point where things swing. Had UCLA been able to push more runs across in this inning, it’s very likely this turns into another laugher and the Bruins could coast to the championship. Instead, the Sooners caught a break, and the game was officially on.

• Rachel Garcia really did not have her best stuff in this game. It’s understandable - over five days, Garcia had thrown 29 innings - but this is where having a team surrounding Garcia comes into play. Between some excellent defense and the hot bats, the Bruins were able to help carry Garcia when she struggled. Great teams find that extra gear all the time.

• (38:54) Speaking of not having her best stuff, Garcia lets this ball drift back over the plate, and Sydney Romero is too good of a hitter not to punish that mistake.

• Jocelyn Alo just missed on a go-ahead home run here. Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.

Mid Game

• Oklahoma gave their first challenge to UCLA in the top half of the third, so of course, the Bruins respond immediately, courtesy of Aaliyah Jordan punishing a mistake that did not move enough off the plate. What’s impressive to me is that all of the home runs UCLA has hit so far have been no-doubters, a sign that they’re really seeing the pitches well.

• Michele Smith on commentary points out that two of UCLA’s home runs so far have come from the left side. The lefty-lefty matchup is usually rough on hitters, as the ball naturally curves away from them. Juarez really struggled in this series.

• UCLA again had the opportunity to add more runs in the third inning, having two on and one out, but Malia Quarles was unable to find some more pinch-hitting magic with the bases loaded.

• Oklahoma is a very good team, and they’re able to come back and tie the game in the 4th inning. Unlike UCLA to this point in the game, the Sooners were able to manufacture their runs with timely hitting and moving baserunners over. Again, had UCLA landed some more blows in the 1st and 3rd innings, you have to wonder if Oklahoma would have the ability to put up a large number of runs to fight back.

• It doesn’t help that Paige Halstead had a nightmare inning behind the plate. As a catcher myself, I feel for her.

• Big time players step up in big time moments, and for as much as Rachel Garcia struggled in this game, Garcia stepped up in the clutch with Oklahoma having bases loaded with one out and the heart of the order up, striking out Caleigh Clifton and getting Jocelyn Alo to ground out. Up to this point, this was Oklahoma’s best chance in this game, and for UCLA to not let things get away from them is huge.

• Huge shutdown inning from Oklahoma in the bottom half, especially as the Bruins got a two-out rally going and had runners on the corners. Another missed opportunity.

• And on the flip side, big 5th inning from Rachel Garcia, though it started to get dicey with two outs. You could really start to see that Garcia was starting to get into the deep waters after an excellent tournament.

• I watched some UCLA softball this year (or at least, as much as happened before everything shut down) and was incredibly impressed with Megan Fariamo, so it was a bit of a cold shock to remember how ineffective she was in her few postseason appearances. She had a solid outing in the regionals against James Madison, but outside of that, it was not great. Holly Azevedo had not been much better, so it became very clear that the Kelly Inouye-Perez was going to ride Rachel Garcia as long as she could.

• (1:45:41) Brianna Tautalafua continues to get the last laugh, hitting her second home run of the championship series and putting the Bruins back in front. And of all the UCLA home runs in this game, this one was easily crushed the hardest, going halfway up the left field bleachers.

• Before we shift to the late game, let’s shout out the Bruin Bubble. This was a home series for Oklahoma in so many ways, but the UCLA faithful in attendance still managed to turn the WCWS into their own personal party. There’s an overhead shot in the 5th inning (1:51:19 if you’re curious) that shows just how outnumbered the UCLA fans were, but you wouldn’t be able to tell from the game broadcast audio.

Late Game

• For an inning with no runs, there is a ton of tension in the 6th inning. In the top half, Rachel Garcia gets a 1-2-3 inning for the first (and only) time all game. In the bottom half of the inning, Giselle Juarez got through the red-hot top half of the UCLA lineup without much trouble. For all that happened in this game, this inning was perhaps the most surprising.

• Shay Knighten was incredibly quiet in the WCWS up to this point, having gone 1-6. But with her team down to their final out, Knighten did what she had always done and came through in the clutch with a home run that barely clears the fence. The pitch didn’t seem all that bad, if not elevated enough, but Knighten got just enough of it to put it out.

• Here’s the thing: despite Knighten’s heroics, all she was really able to do was tie the game. Garcia did not have her best stuff in this game, yet it didn’t really matter as Oklahoma was really unable to do the damage necessary. And as the Bruins walked off the field in the top half of the 7th inning, they at least knew they were not even losing the game. That’s huge from a mental standpoint.

• I’m not against the sacrifice play that Coach Perez runs for Tautalafua here. All the Bruins needs is one run, so putting the runner on second with one out is a fine play. Unfortunately, the Bruins find themselves the victim of a TOOTBLAN in the very next at-bat.

• Reasons the sacrifice was good strategy: I feel that, in softball, getting a single to the outfield presents more opportunities to score from second than it would in baseball. Again, not speaking from experience here, but softball’s don’t seem designed to allow outfielders to put a ton of force behind throws home, and that gave Jacqui Prober all the opportunity she needed to run home on Kinsley Washington’s bloop single to left.

• (2:17:55) Really though, this slide is fantastic. Prober stays in the basepath but does an excellent job avoiding the catcher and still getting to home plate. That’s a slide that MLB players struggle with, so to pull it off with the WCWS on the line is extremely impressive.

• (2:18:20) Reasons to love Lisa Fernandez: after the celebratory hugs with the rest of the coaching staff, she then runs over to join the dogpile. Fernandez is a living softball legend, and her love of both the game and UCLA remains amazing.

• This game, this whole season felt like redemption for a lot of Bruins. For Rachel Garcia, it was a proclamation that she was truly the best collegiate softball player on the planet, and now she had the national championship and a Most Outstanding Player award to back it up. For Coach Kelly Inouye-Perez, it was redemption from a miserable 2018 WCWS, where she committed a ton of strategic blunders; in this postseason, she was really masterful and pushed all the right buttons to get her team over the hump.

Epilogue

This is a weird epilogue because it’s hard to say what happens next. Certainly, UCLA was set up for another excellent season this year, starting off the season 25-1 and looking incredibly strong behind new ace Megan Faraimo. And really, this was a bridge year, with Rachel Garcia and Bubba Nickles off playing for Team USA for a season then looking to rejoin the team for 2021. That is still all in play, especially as spring sport athletes were given an extra year of eligibility, but it means the timetable for everyone has been shifted out a year. Not the worst thing in the world, but it creates more questions about what might have been.

Go Bruins!