South Carolina Mental Error and Woolery Walk-off Keep UCLA's Softball Season Alive
After beating South Carolina yesterday by a score of 5-4, the Bruins face the Gamecocks in a deciding game at the NCAA Super Regionals.
This afternoon, the UCLA softball team will meet the South Carolina Gamecocks at Noon PT in Game 3 of the 2025 NCAA Softball Super Regionals. The winner goes to the Women’s College World Series while the loser goes home. The game will be broadcast on ESPN2.
Last Time Out
Today’s game almost didn’t happen.
That’s because UCLA’s offense was anemic through the first six innings of yesterday’s game. In fact, it was anemic in Game 1 on Friday as well when the Bruins dropped the opening game of the series by a score of 9-2.
So, will UCLA’s seventh inning rally be the spark the Bruins need to win the series and head to Oklahoma City? We’ll see this afternoon.
As happens with all Super Regionals, the host team played Game 2 as the visiting team and the Gamecocks scored a run in the top of the first when Quincee Lilio scored on an RBI single by Lexi Winters.
The score remained 1-0 until the top of the fifth when South Carolina added a pair of runs to take a 3-0 lead. Again, it was a single by Winters that scored the runs. This time, both Lilio and Karley Shelton scored.
The Bruins got one back in the bottom of the inning on a solo homer by freshman Sofia Mujica.
Unfortunately, South Carolina got the run back in the top of the sixth. Taylor Tinsley gave up two hits and then hit Mya Flindt with a pitch to load the bases. That brought Lilio up to the plate with still just one out. With the count 1-2, she hit what could best be described as a swinging bunt which died about a third of the way between home plate and the pitcher’s circle, which allowed Brooke Blankenship to score when Tinsley and catcher Alexis Ramirez both tried to field the ball, but UCLA was able to limit the damage in one of the more weird plays you may see.
Karley Shelton hit a grounder to Savannah Pola at second who threw home to force out Emma Sellers for the second out of the inning. For some reason, Shelton went back to the dugout after reaching first on the fielder’s choice. When first baseman Megan Grant realized this, she ran over and tagged first base, resulting in Shelton being called out for abandoning the base.
If UCLA wins the series, that play may be the turning point because it ended the Gamecock scoring threat and resulted in South Carolina only putting up a breadstick despite the fact that the bases were loaded when Shelton came to the plate. If she stayed at first, who knows how many more runs the Gamecocks would have scored.
In the bottom of the seventh with their backs to the wall, the Bruin bats finally came alive. Taylor Stephens got the rally started with a walk when she pinch hit for Kaniya Bragg. Kaitlyn Terry scored Stephens when she tripled to right center.
Pola came to bat with two outs, needing to reach base to keep the season alive. She singled to center, scoring Terry. That brought Jordan Woolery to the plate as the potential game-winning run, and she sent the first pitch she saw over the left field wall for a two-run walk-off homer, forcing today’s third and deciding game.
This is your NCAA Super Regional Game 3 game thread. Here’s how to watch today’s game:
2025 NCAA Softball Super Regionals
Teams: #9 seed UCLA Bruins (53-11) vs. #8 seed South Carolina Gamecocks (44-16)
Where: Carolina Softball Stadium, Columbia, SC
When: 12:00 pm PT, Sunday, May 25, 2025
TV: ESPN2
Live Stream: WatchESPN.com and the ESPN app
Live Stats: NCAA Game Center
Game Notes
UCLA
South Carolina
Go Bruins!!!
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