UCLA Is Eliminated in Softball

Erica Beach limited UCLA to six hits and Arizona State knocked the Bruins out of the NCAA Women’s College World Series with a 2-1 victory Saturday night at Don Porter Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City.

It is a stunning result for the Bruins (55-9), who began the championships as the nation’s top-ranked team. UCLA had reached the last three NCAA title games.

Beach gave the Bruins’ struggling offense fits with an assortment of off-speed pitches. She struck out only one but consistently got ahead of hitters and got 13 groundball outs.

To win its ninth NCAA title, UCLA had to go through the loser’s bracket after a shocking opening-game 2-1 loss to Florida State on Thursday. The Bruins did stave off elimination earlier Saturday as Keira Goerl threw a one-hitter in a 2-0 victory over Oklahoma.

Amanda Freed started the second game and ran into trouble in the third inning. With two out, Kristin Farber reached on an infield hit and Kara Brun singled to left. Phelan Wright then doubled down the right-field line to score Farber.

After an intentional walk to Beach to load the bases, Missy Hixon grounded a single under shortstop Natasha Watley’s glove for a 2-0 lead.

Stacey Nuveman, who homered in the Oklahoma victory, doubled in Freed in the sixth. But the Bruins failed to score with two runners on in the sixth and the tying run on at third in the seventh.

The Sun Devils (46-19) will play California today. They must defeat the Golden Bears twice to advance to Monday’s championship game.

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Bill Peavey, Brian Barre, Joey Metropolous and Michael Moon hit home runs, and USC (33-22, 16-7) clinched a share of the Pacific 10 Conference baseball title with a 16-10 victory over UCLA in front of 1,243 at Jackie Robinson Stadium.

UCLA’s Adam Berry hit a grand slam in the fifth to tie the score, 7-7. But the Trojans broke it open with a six-run sixth inning, powered by a three-run homer by Peavey and a two-run drive by Moon.

In the West Coast Conference, Rock Mills hit two home runs and tied a career high with five runs batted in, and Pepperdine (31-31) defeated San Diego, 15-4, to even the best-of-three championship series at Pepperdine.

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Nicole Duncan of Cal State Los Angeles became the fourth person in any division to win NCAA titles in the 100 meters, 200 meters and long jump events at the Division II track and field championships at San Angelo, Texas.

Duncan won the 100 meters in 11.40 to beat Cal State Dominguez Hills’ Carmelitta Jeter. She won the 200 in 23.49 seconds and took the long jump with a leap of 20 feet 103/4 inches.

Cal State Bakersfield’s April Burton won the women’s discus with a throw of 177-9.

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Gabriela Lastra and Lauren Kalvaria of Stanford defeated UCLA’s Megan Bradley and Lauren Fisher, 6-2, 6-3, to win the NCAA women’s doubles title at Stanford.

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Nick Rainey of USC saw his run in the NCAA men’s singles championships end in a 7-5, 6-2 loss to top-seeded Matias Boeker of Georgia in the quarterfinals at College Station, Texas.