UCLA
San Diego State
Softball Advances To Regional Final
May 19, 2001 | Softball
May 19, 2001
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LOS ANGELES
- Tairia Mims hit her 17th homer of the season and pinch runner Erin Rahn avoided a tag on a play at the plate in the fifth inning as second-ranked UCLA advanced to the finals of the NCAA softball regionals, defeating San Diego State on Saturday afternoon at Easton Stadium, 3-1.UCLA opened the scoring in the bottom of the third as Mims drilled the first pitch over the left-center field wall for a 1-0 lead. The Aztecs knotted the contest at 1-1 in the fourth when center fielder Janna Kovensky turned on a high fastball for her fourth homer of the season.
With one out in the fifth inning, Crissy Buck singled back to the mound and exited the game in favor of Rahn. Natasha Watley sacrificed Rahn to second and Stephanie Ramos came through with a RBI single to right field. Rahn narrowly avoided the tag from SDSU catcher Brooke Johnson for a 2-1 margin. UCLA added its final run in the sixth as Courtney Dale.s RBI single down the left field line scored Monique Mejia, who was pinch running for Stacey Nuveman after her leadoff single to left.
Keira Goerl (26-2) went the distance for UCLA, allowing just three hits and one run while walking none and fanning seven. Claire Sua was 2-for-3 in the win while six other Bruins had one hit apiece in the eight-hit attack. For San Diego Sate, Sandra Durazo (30-14) took the loss, giving up eight hits and three runs in the complete game. Kovensky had two of the Aztecs' three hits.
The Bruins are now 58-5 overall and will face either Wisconsin or San Diego State in Sunday's regional final at 12:30 p.m. UW and SDSU played each other in an elimination game on Saturday afternoon, immediately following the UCLA-SDSU matchup.
