NCAA Softball Regional : Top-Ranked UCLA Eliminates Titans, 2-0

There was no great sense of desperation as the Cal State Fullerton softball season came to an end Saturday.

It was about as much as the Titans could have expected.

Or, as Cal State Fullerton Coach Judi Garman noted: “How can you win a game when you can’t score runs?”

Simply put.

UCLA (48-7), the top-ranked team in the country, advanced to the College World Series with a 2-0 victory over Fullerton Saturday, completing a two-game sweep of the best-of-three NCAA Regional series at Sunset Field.

Fullerton didn’t score a run in the entire series. The Titans lost, 3-0, in the first game Friday.

“They were the better team,” Garman said. “If we had pulled this out, we would have had a lot of lady luck.”

Lorraine Maynez, a freshman whose .355 average leads the Bruins, drove in UCLA’s first run and scored the second herself.

Maynez drove a ball to the gap in left-center field for a stand-up triple in the third inning, driving in Shanna Flynn, who had singled and gone to second on a sacrifice.

Maynez then scored on a sacrifice fly by Janice Parks.

Samantha Ford (17-4) earned the victory, scattering six singles.

Fullerton starter Janis Okerlund (14-5) allowed two runs in four innings, taking the loss.

This was not a banner season for Fullerton, which won the national championship in 1986 and had not missed a College World Series in three seasons.

The Titans finished with a 52-20 record, the most losses of any Fullerton team since 1980, when Fullerton went 35-25 in the program’s first year.

And it has been a fine season for UCLA, which has been ranked first in the nation the entire season.

But the Titans might have had a chance in this series had it not been for the deadness of their bats, particularly those of the top five hitters in the order.

“Basically, the people we rely on failed to come through,” Garman said.

In fact, the top five in the order--Carey Hess, Valerie Van Kirk, Charis Monroe, Val Douglas and Missy Coombes--managed only four hits altogether in the series, and Douglas had two of them.

“Our pitching is going to give up a run or two. We needed our offense to get it back,” Garman said.

As it turned out, UCLA managed one hit fewer than Fullerton, gathering eight in the series to the Titans’ nine. But four of UCLA’s hits were for extra bases, and Fullerton hit nothing but singles.

“Give credit to UCLA; they crushed the ball,” Garman said. “We’re just not explosive.”

The loss ended a season that was disappointing, particularly for the veterans.

“I thought we were ready,” said Monroe, the Titans’ junior shortstop, who had never played on a Titan team that finished lower than third in the nation.

Garman has missed making the final eight only once in her nine years at Fullerton. She plans to go to the College World Series next week, plus do one other thing: “Recruit some hitters.”

For UCLA, which is used to battling it out with Fullerton at the College World Series, this was a sweet victory.

“This meant a lot to us,” UCLA Coach Sharron Backus said.

Titan Notes

Shortstop Charis Monroe, third baseman Val Douglas and outfielder Carey Hess were named to the NCAA West Regional first team, which was announced last week. . . . Monroe, a junior, said she has finished her Fullerton playing career. “I’ve been playing 14 years. I’m just tired of softball,” she said.