No Joy In Westwood as UCLA Softball and Baseball Eliminated
No Joy In Westwood as UCLA Softball and Baseball Eliminated
The Bruin softball team managed to beat Oklahoma, 7-3, in the first game of their doubleheader before losing the second one, 15-0 while the UCLA baseball team was unable to come back against Auburn.
Today was the final day of the season for both the UCLA softball and baseball teams. After winning the opening game of the WCWS Semifinals this morning by a score of 7-3, the softball team seemed to have nothing left in the tank in the second game, which they lost 15-0. Meanwhile, in Auburn, Alabama, the baseball team concluded regional play in the NCAA Baseball Tournament by finishing last night’s suspended game against the Auburn Tigers.
UCLA Softball
The softball team got the day started with a 9am PT first pitch in Game 11 of the 2022 Women’s College World Series. Kinsley Washington started the game well for UCLA when she drew a walk to lead off the top of the first. After Briana Perez flew out to center, Delanie Wisz gave the Bruins a 2-0 lead with a homer to left. The Sooners managed to get a run back on a solo shot by Jayda Coleman who led off for Oklahoma.
The top of the third saw UCLA increase the lead. Perez led off the inning with a single and Wisz followed with a walk. That brought Maya Brady to the plate with a chance to prove that her famous uncle, Buccaneers QB Tom Brady, was correct in calling her the best athlete in the family. After she took a pitch deep to center, he might be right. The three-run homer gave the Bruins a 5-1 lead which the Sooners would be unable to overcome, even though they did get two runs back in the bottom of the fourth.
As if the third inning homer wasn’t enough, Brady launched a two-run homer to left to put the nail in the Sooners’ game one coffin. Megan Faraimo picked up her 24th win of the season and Holly Azevedo earned her second save of the year with three scoreless innings to wrap things up.
The second game was more than the ugliest loss of the season for the Bruins. It was also the worst loss ever by Bruin head coach Kelly Inouye-Perez. How bad was it?
The Bruin offense mustered only two hits — a double by Briana Perez in the first inning and a single by Alyssa Garcia in the fifth. Those were the only two baserunners of the game for UCLA. Meanwhile, the Sooners beat the stuffing out of UCLA’s pitchers with three runs in the first, three more in the second and one in the fourth.
Then came the top of the fifth when Oklahoma scored more runs in one inning than they had throughout the rest of the game until that point. All told, the Sooners put up an 8-spot as they took a 15-0 lead and, just like that, the Bruins season was ended with another bad loss to the Sooners.
UCLA Baseball
The Bruin baseball team entered the day with a tougher task than the softball team. At least the softball team started each game with a 0-0 score. The baseball team found themselves down 9-0 to the Auburn Tigers after play was suspended due to weather last night.
The Tigers put up two runs in the first and two more in the fourth to jump out to a 4-0 lead. They added a leadoff homer in the fifth, which proved to be the game-winner before adding four insurance runs in the top of the sixth.
Then the rains came and the game was suspended until Monday afternoon.
On the plus side, the Bruins outscored Auburn in the remaining innings, but it wasn’t nearly enough to close that big gap.
UCLA finally got on the scoreboard in the seventh inning. Kyle Karros led off with a walk and DH Daylen Reyes followed with a single. After a wild pitch moved the runners up, Carson Yates hit a sacrifice fly which scored Karros. A two-out single by Darius Perry scored Reyes to cut the Auburn lead to 9-2.
With one out in the eighth, Jack Holman pinch hit for Jon Jon Vaughns and he homered to right. The Bruins would add one more run in the inning to cut the Tigers lead to a manageable 9-4, heading into the ninth.
But in the top half of the inning Auburn added two more insurance runs to make it 11-4. While UCLA was able to get a runner on in the bottom half of the inning, they couldn’t get him across and the Bruins were eliminated by the Tigers.
The losses by both the softball and baseball teams mean that UCLA will need to wait until the 2022-23 school year to add the school’s 120th NCAA title.
Go Bruins.
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