UCLA Wins Two to Earn Trip to World Series

UCLA, facing elimination in two games Sunday against Cal State Fullerton at Fullerton, won both of them behind a resurgent hitting attack to reach the softball College World Series for the 10th consecutive year.

The defending national champion Bruins (45-9) won the NCAA regional tournament’s deciding game, 7-2, after overwhelming the Titans, 14-1, earlier to keep their hope alive for a fourth national title in the 1990s.

The World Series begins Thursday at the Olympic venue in Columbus, Ga.

UCLA hit four home runs, two of them three-run shots by Julie Adams, in the first game that was stopped at the end of five innings under the eight-run rule. Alleah Poulson also had a three-run homer in the first, and Christie Ambrosi a grand slam in the fourth.

The Bruins came back with 11 hits in the second game, scoring two runs in the fifth and five in the sixth to wreck Fullerton’s once-bright hopes of a second consecutive regional title.

B’Ann Burns (29-6) was the winning pitcher in both games.

Poulson, who played at Irvine High, said she thought the strong showing in the first game helped UCLA’s confidence.

Freshman Liza Brown (18-13) started both games for the Titans. She gave up nine runs in 3 1/3 innings of the first game and all seven in the second. Brown was the winning pitcher in Fullerton’s earlier victories over UCLA and Cal State Northridge.

“When we got really going, we realized it was easier to hit,” Poulson said. “That second game was stressful, but we knew we could still do it.”

In the second game, Brown hit a bases-empty homer in the second trying to help her own cause, but the Bruins pushed across two runs in the fifth and led the rest of the way.