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Just a day after an inexplicable blowout of the Oklahoma Sooners, the UCLA Bruins won a thriller of a game on Tuesday night to earn the title of National Champions and record the program’s first softball title since 2010.
Here’s a recap of the two-game sweep and how Kelly Inouye-Perez’s team made it happen…
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Game 2 – Tuesday, June 5, 2019: UCLA 5, Oklahoma 4
A back-and-forth affair that included a pair of come-from-behind game-tying efforts on the part of the Sooners, a tied game after 6 1/2 innings ended in walk-off fashion for the Bruins, as a Kinsley Washington base hit to left field brought pinch runner home, just ahead of the throw and tag to score the winning run and give the Bruins the championship.
And make Washington forever a legend in the already storied UCLA softball history books.
Rachel Garcia got the start in the circle for UCLA for the fifth consecutive game and proceeded to throw her fourth complete game of the weekend. Garcia pitched all but two innings of her team’s stay in Oklahoma City, throwing 603 pitches in six days.
UCLA got the scoring started on Tuesday night with a pair of solo home runs in the bottom of the first inning.
Bubba Nickles led off the Bruins’ offensive attack with a home run and was immediately followed by Briana Perez who put her seventh long ball of the season over the fence.
Oklahoma was unable to score against Garcia until the top of the third inning, when a Sydney Romero solo home run took the goose egg off the board for the Sooners and made it a 1-run game.
🎥 #WCWS Highlights – Championship Series Game 2
After a back and forth battle, @UCLASoftball wins the 2019 Women's College World Series in walk-off fashion, defeating @OU_Softball, 5-4. pic.twitter.com/xqUkJAPVkh
— NCAA Softball (@NCAAsoftball) June 5, 2019
UCLA answered in the bottom of the inning with a solo home run by Aaliyah Jordan, but G Juarez buckled down with a strikeout of Malia Quarles to get out of a bases-loaded jam without any damage.
In the top of the fourth inning, it didn’t take the long ball for Oklahoma to tie up the ball game. An RBI single from Fale Aviu again brought the Sooners within a single run, before sophomore catcher Lynnsie Elam’s RBI double tied the score at 3-all.
Bruins third baseman Brianna Tautalafua hit her second home run in as many days in the bottom of the fifth inning. Tautalafua had just three home runs during the regular season, a total that she nearly matched in the WCWS Championship Series alone.
Brianna Tautalafua had 3 home runs all season. She now has 2 in the Championship Series alone 👏#WCWS | @UCLASoftball pic.twitter.com/cX1bY3pSPZ
— NCAA Softball (@NCAAsoftball) June 5, 2019
Down to their last three outs in the top of the seventh inning, senior first baseman Shay Knighten hit a game-tying home run to right-center field with two outs and a 2-1 count, the fifth career WCWS home run of her stellar tenure in a Sooner uniform.
In the bottom of the inning, UCLA put together a rally that would eventually result in the run for the ages.
