Courtesy of UCLA Athletics
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. – A great all-around effort of offense, defense and pitching spurred the seventh-seeded Bruins to a 7-1 victory over #2 Oregon on Thursday at the Women’s College World Series at ASA Hall of Fame Stadium.
The Bruins improve to 51-10 on the season and advance in the winner’s bracket, facing #3 Michigan on Friday at 6:30 p.m. PT/8:30 p.m. CT. The game will air live on ESPN.
Senior Ally Carda moved to 32-6 on the season, striking out three in a complete game and allowing one run, six hits and one walk.
Carda also had two hits at the plate, as the Bruins recorded nine as a team from eight different players.
The Bruins got on the board with a pair of solo homers in the second. A leadoff shot to dead center by senior Stephany LaRosa, her 20th of the season, put UCLA up by one. Two outs later, sophomore Gabrielle Maurice went the opposite way to left on the first pitch she saw, her 10th of the year, to make it 2-0.
The Ducks (51-7) had baserunners in each of the first four innings, but a couple of great defensive plays in the first and third kept Oregon off the scoreboard. In the first, a single to right by Jenna Lilley advanced Janie Takeda, who tried to take third, but she was thrown out by freshman right fielder Kylee Perez. In the third, Oregon had a pair on with no outs, but Carda snagged a comebacker off the bat of Takeda and doubled up Nikki Udria at first, with a line out to senior Gracie Goulder at second ending the threat.
In the fourth, Oregon again had two on with no outs after bloop and infield singles, but Carda got the next two outs. A single to left loaded the bases for the Ducks, but Alyssa Gillespie slapped one to third and junior Mysha Sataraka, who snagged it and touched the third-base bag to end the fourth.
In the fifth, Carda had her first 1-2-3 inning of the game, but not without the highlight play of the evening. Udria led things off with a sinking liner to left-center, but junior Allexis Bennett dove and made the catch to keep the Ducks off the pond.
UCLA broke it open in the sixth, batting around and scoring five runs. Bennett led off with a single to left-center and Carda singled off Oregon pitcher Cheridan Hawkins, as both moved up a base on a LaRosa grounder. One out later, a pop fly double to right off the bat of Sataraka plated Bennett and Carda to increase the Bruins’ lead to 4-0.
With senior Sam Duran running for Sataraka at second, she moved to third on a wild pitch when Maurice reached on a missed strike three. Goulder followed with a single to center to bring in Duran to make it 5-0, as Maurice took third and Goulder reached second on the throw. A single to right by Perez then plated Maurice and Goulder to increase the margin to 7-0.
The Ducks broke the shutout on an RBI single by Lauren Lindvall in the seventh, but Carda finished off Oregon to advance the Bruins to a date with Michigan.
