Adams Locates Plate in 1-0 UCLA Victory

The decision to let Julie Adams play was one UCLA softball Coach Sue Enquist couldn’t make until batting practice before Friday’s game against Fresno State.

Enquist made the right decision.

Adams, who dislocated her surgically repaired left shoulder for the second time this season while sliding headfirst in a game Thursday, went two for two and scored the game’s only run in the seventh inning as the top-seeded Bruins defeated fourth-seeded Fresno State, 1-0, in the second round of the Women’s College World Series at Porter Hall of Fame Stadium. The Bruins will play in a Sunday semifinal at 10 a.m.

For the second game in a row, UCLA (61-6) got outstanding pitching, as freshman Amanda Freed outdueled 1998 World Series most outstanding player Amanda Scott, going the distance and striking out a career-high 11 while giving up only five hits.

But it was Adams’ return that sparked the Bruins.

After picking up singles in the second and fourth, Adams, who defeated Fresno earlier this year with a seventh-inning home run, walked to lead off the top of the seventh. A sacrifice by Julie Marshall moved her to second and Courtney Dale hit a hard ground ball to first baseman Jaime Maxey. The spinning grounder handcuffed Maxey, skipping off her glove and past second baseman Lovieanne Jung into right field.

Adams slid home with the winning run.

“Julie Adams, I just can’t say enough about her,” said Enquist, who admitted Adams’ status wasn’t certain until she took batting practice and showed her swing would be effective.

Adams, the team’s emotional leader who returned from the hospital Thursday in time to be at the stadium when the Bruins tied the score in the seventh and be on the bench when the Bruins won on a home run in the 10th against DePaul, had her shoulder iced and stretched every 90 minutes throughout Thursday night and Friday before the game.

“It pretty much hurts all the time,” said the most outstanding player of UCLA’s regional who redshirted in 1998 after surgery to repair a dislocation suffered in 1997. “I have a brace to wear which restricts my movement. It’s not very comfortable so there’s always a reminder of the pain.”

Before Adams’ and Dale’s heroics, the Bulldogs (65-9) were the team with more scoring chances, stranding seven runners in the first six innings. But Freed, who improved to 26-4, held on, leaving two runners on in both the fifth and sixth.

Washington 3, Arizona 0--The Huskies tied a World Series record with four doubles, and Jennifer Spediacci won her second game in as many nights as the Huskies (50-17) advanced to the semifinals Sunday. Arizona fell to 53-15.

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Up Next

TODAY

* Game 7--DePaul (52-13) vs. Southern Mississippi (52-8), 10 a.m.

* Game 8--Arizona State (41-27) vs. California (49-21), 12:30 p.m.

* Game 9--Arizona (53-15) vs. Game 7 winner, 4 p.m.

* Game 10--Fresno State (65-9) vs. Game 8 winner, 6:30 p.m.

SUNDAY

* Game 11--UCLA (61-6) vs. Game 9 winner, 10 a.m.

* Game 12--Washington (50-17) vs. Game 10 winner, 12:30 p.m.

* Game 13--UCLA vs. Game 11 winner, 4 p.m., if necessary.

* Game 14--Washington vs. Game 12 winner, 5 or 6:30 p.m., if necessary.