UCLA Softball Crushes UCF, 14-4, and Punches Ticket to WCWS
The Bruins completed their sweep of the UCF Knights to earn a berth in the Women's College World Series for the 34th time.
Aubrey Evans led off the game by sending the third pitch from UCLA pitcher Taylor Tinsley over the centerfield fence. Unfortunately for UCF, the rest of the game went downhill from there.
Soo-Jin Berry led off the third inning for the Bruins with a single. Jolyna Lamar and Rylee Slimp both walked to load the bases for Megan Grant, whose fly ball to left didn’t have enough power behind it to clear the bases, but it was deep enough to score Berry for UCLA’s first run of the game. Then, with two outs, Aleena Garcia singled Lamar home to put the Bruins up, 2-1. They would never trail again in this game.
They scored again in the fourth when Alexis Ramirez hit a solo homer to left.
The Bruins doubled their run tally in the fifth inning. Grant and Garcia walked and, in between them, Jordan Woolery singled. With the bases now loaded, Bri Alejandre came to the plate looking to set the Big Ten freshman home run record. It didn’t happen though as she was hit by a pitch to score Riley Pinedo, who had pinch-run for Grant. With one out, Ramirez doubled to left, scoring both Garcia and Alejandre. That would prove to be the game- and series-winning hit as the Bruins now led 6-1.
The bottom half of the inning saw the Knights get the three runs back and UCLA’s lead was cut to 6-4 after five. The runs UCF scored were good enough to ensure that this game would go a full seven innings, and if they hadn’t scored them, the game would have been over after the sixth inning.
That’s because the Bruins tacked on three more runs when Garcia homered to right with Grant on second and Woolery on first, taking a 9-4 lead into the final frame.
With two on and one out in the seventh, Woolery hit an RBI double to right which scored Lamar. Garcia followed with a three-run homer to make the score 13-4. Meanwhile, Alejandre went yard for a back-to-back homer as the Bruins made it a ten-run margin.
The bottom of the seventh saw Tinsley allow a one-out hit before she closed the door on the Knights with the final two outs.
She allowed just four runs on nine hits and three walks while striking out 11 in a complete game for the win.
UCLA now heads to Oklahoma City where the Bruins will face top-seeded Alabama on Thursday. Game time has not yet been announcd.
Go Bruins!!! Bring home NC #128!!!
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Love this team. Going to be tough with the pitching staff. Tinsley can’t do it alone
Looks like our half of the bracket is chalk (1, 4, 5, 8 seeds) while the other side has the two upsets... I hope we can get enough pitching to win the Series against other elite teams. Go Bruins!