UCLA Beats Titans Twice

UCLA, facing elimination in two games Sunday against Cal State Fullerton, won both 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 at the Titan Softball Complex. It kept alive UCLA’s hopes for its fourth national softball title of the 1990s.

Not even the Titans’ “lucky” blue uniforms, worn in the second game, could turn things around.

The Bruins hit four home runs, two of them three-run shots by Julie Adams, in the first game. Alleah Poulson also had a three-run homer in the first, and Christie Ambrosi a grand slam in the fourth.

“We felt we could do it in the blue uniforms after the great games the last two days,” Titan Coach Judi Garman said. The Titans had been required to wear white uniforms in the first game Sunday.

But the Bruins came back with 11 hits to only six for the Titans (41-28). UCLA scored 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. “You have to hit the ball to win, and she shut us down today,” Garman said.

Freshman Liza Brown (18-13) was the Titans’ starting pitcher in all four tournament games. “I was mentally fine, but a little run down physically,” Brown said. Brown gave up nine runs in 3 1/3 innings of the first game and all seven in the second. She was the winning pitcher against UCLA Friday and Cal State Northridge Saturday.

Brown held UCLA scoreless through four consecutive innings before UCLA started rolling offensively in the second game.

“When we got really going, we realized it was easier to hit,” said Poulson, the Bruin first baseman who played at Irvine High. “That second game was stressful, but we knew we could still do it.”

Brown hit a bases-empty homer in the second inning trying to help her cause, but the Bruins pushed across two runs in the fifth for a one-run lead and led the rest of the way. Consecutive hits by Laurie Fritz, Kelly Howard and Ginny Mike-Mitchell loaded the bases in the fifth. A walk forced in the first run and a sacrifice fly by Poulson brought in the second.

The Bruins broke the game open in the sixth. Julie Marshall singled in two runs, and a triple by Mike-Mitchell brought in two more. Adams’ hit drove in the final run.

“Liza did a fine job for a freshman,” Garman said. “We just didn’t get her runs. Our bats were silent.”