Postgame Notes

May 31, 2004

UCLA has now won 11 softball national championships (10 NCAA) and is 10-6 in the WCWS title game. UCLA has titles in 1978 (AIAW), 1982, 1984, 1985, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1992, 1999, 2003 and 2004. UCLA has now won nine straight WCWS games and improved to 77-23 in the event.

California, appearing in its third straight title game, is 1-2 in the championship contest. Cal made its ninth WCWS appearance this year and sixth straight. The Golden Bears are now 18-16 all-time in the tournament. The Golden Bears won the title in 2002.

UCLA finished 3-1 against Cal this season and now leads the all-time series 66-15.

Keira Goerl became the third pitcher to earn a victory in multiple national championship games. Others include UCLA's Debbie Doom (1982, 1983, 1984) and Arizona's Susie Parra (1993, 1994).

UCLA freshman Kristen Dedmon's two-out, two-run single in the bottom of the fifth inning was just her 14th hit of the season and came in her only WCWS plate appearance. The RBIs were her seventh and eight of the year.

The run scored by Cal's Lindsay James was the first run scored in the first inning of the championship game since 1999 (UCLA scored in the first frame of a 3-2 win over Washington).

UCLA's Claire Sua hit her 10th home run of the season when she broke up Cal pitcher Kelly Anderson's no-hit bid in the bottom of the fifth inning. The blast was only Sua's second hit of the WCWS. It was the 10th homer of the season surrendered by Anderson.

Teams that score first in the WCWS championship game are now 20-2. UCLA beat Nebraska 2-1 (nine innings) in 1985 after the Huskers scored first. Cal scored its only run of tonight's game in the top of the first.

Tonight marked the second time for UCLA and the fourth time in this year's WCWS that the winning team was out-hit. UCLA beat Stanford 3-1 in 12 innings on Sunday despite getting out-hit 11-10.

UCLA freshman Jodie Legaspi's walk in the fifth frame marked the 13th straight game that she has reached base safely.

Cal's Kelly Anderson became the fourth pitcher in the history of the WCWS to lose multiple games (she took the loss in last year's nine-inning UCLA victory). Texas A&M's Shawn Andaya, Fresno State's Carie Dever and UCLA's Amanda Freed also have two WCWS title game losses.

Only eight teams that have one WCWS loss entering the title game have won the national championship: UCLA (2003, 1985, 1984), Fresno State (1998), Arizona (1993 and 1991), Texas A&M (1987, 1983).

Since 1991 (the first year of an all Pac-10 WCWS final), 11 of the last 14 championship games have featured two Pac-10 teams. In the history of the WCWS, there have only been two years (1983 and 1986) that a Pac-10 team was not represented in the championship game.

Tonight's attendance of 5,735 put the total attendance for the seven-session WCWS at 41,034. That broke the previous mark of 38,102 set in 2001 by 2,932. This evening's crowd was the second largest in WCWS championship game history (8,049 witnessed OU defeated UCLA in 2000).

UCLA became the first home team to win the WCWS championship game since 1998 (Fresno State).

The national title is UCLA's third this year (women's gymnastics and women's golf) and 93rd overall.

Recent Results

Upcoming Events

Postgame Notes

University of California, Los Angeles, Athletics

Postgame Notes

Related News

Related Videos