NCAA Softball : UCLA Wins Title, Beating Fullerton, Then Nebraska

Hardly anyone, with the possible exception of a few ESPN executives who filmed a special segment on the International Tiebreaker Rule, wanted it to come down to this. Not the players, not the coaches and certainly not the 3,180 on hand Sunday at Seymour Smith Park.

But UCLA (41-9) won the national championship in the NCAA Division 1 Softball World Series via the tiebreaker rule, 2-1, in nine innings over Nebraska.

The tiebreaker rule, in use for the first time this year, puts a runner on second base at the beginning of each inning after the regulation seven.

“It’s scary all right,” admitted UCLA Coach Sharron Backus, who has led the Bruins to three national titles in six years. “But it’s important to the popularity of the sport. Twenty- and 30-inning games may be OK for the purists and the players, but it’ll never sell softball.”

Leslie Rover started at second for the Bruins in the bottom of the ninth and moved to third on a sacrifice. The Cornhuskers intentionally walked the next two hitters to load the bases, before catcher Janet Pinneau slapped a Lori Sippel change-up into right field to win the game.

“I went up there thinking I was due,” Pinneau said. “I wasn’t looking for the change, I just reacted to it.”

All-American senior pitcher Debbie Doom (20-5) worked out of a number of jams--including a first-and-third, no-out situation in the fifth--and hung on to go the distance.

“They weren’t exactly drilling me (Nebraska had six hits), but we made some errors and I walked some people and I was in trouble a lot,” Doom said. “I’m a pressure pitcher, though. I even enjoy the crowd being against me.”

Doom admitted that she was both “mentally and emotionally tired” going into the late innings, but had only one thing on her mind. “I wanted to go out a winner.”

Fullerton Coach Judi Garman couldn’t explain why the touted Titans have two second-place finishes, two thirds and a ninth-and more significantly no national titles-in five years of World Series competition.

“I’m proud of the way we played here,” Garman said. “I wasn’t always sure why or how we kept winning this year, but we did . . . until we got here and then we just quit hitting.”

It doesn’t take a lot of hitting to be successful in this sport, however. Just timely hitting. And that’s exactly what the Bruins got in the bottom of the seventh to beat the Titans.

Fullerton’s JoAnn Ferrieri opened the top of the seventh with a single to left, was sacrificed to second and was stranded there as Robin Goodin and Debbie Mygind grounded out.

Rover opened the bottom of the inning with a ground-ball single to left, was sacrificed to second and then moved over to third when Gina Holmstrom bounced a single to left. Chris Olivie lined the game-winning single to left.