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Eighth-Ranked Bruins Extend Winning Streak to Seven With Sweep of Cal
April 19, 2015 | Softball
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LOS ANGELES - The eighth-ranked Bruins swept #18 California for the second straight season on Sunday, recording an 8-5 victory at Easton Stadium.
UCLA, which improves to 38-8 overall and 12-3 in Pac-12 play, had 10 hits as a team from eight different players. Senior Stephany LaRosa and freshman Kylee Perez both had a pair of hits.
In the circle, freshman Johanna Grauer improved to 9-1 on the season, striking out three in 4 1/3 innings, giving up three runs, six hits and two walks. She had 1-2-3 innings in the second and fourth. Freshman Selina Ta'amilo earned her third save of the year with two shutout frames of relief, giving up just one hit and retiring the final five batters she faced. Senior Ally Carda pitched 2/3 of an inning and gave up two runs, one hit and four walks.
California (32-12, 5-10) plated a pair in the first on an RBI double by Kobie Pettis and a run-scoring single from Britt Vonk.
The Bruins tied things up in the second. With one out, three straight singles by sophomore Gabrielle Maurice, junior Mysha Sataraka and senior Gracie Goulder cut UCLA's deficit in half. A sacrifice fly to left off the bat of junior Allexis Bennett brought in Sataraka to even things at two.
UCLA posted two more runs in the fourth. With two outs and Bennett on first after reaching on a fielder's choice, sophomore Delaney Spaulding hit a line-drive laser over the wall in left to take the team lead in home runs with 10 to put the home squad up 4-2.
The Golden Bears scratched across a run in the fifth on an RBI single by Cheyenne Cordes to make it 4-3, but the Bruins added two more in their half of the fifth. LaRosa led off the frame with a homer to left-center to get even with Spaulding in the tater column to make it 5-3. Freshman Maddy Jelenicki followed with a double to left, moved to third on a Maurice sacrifice and scored on a Sataraka sacrifice fly to left to extend the lead to 6-3.
California cut its deficit to one on two runs in the sixth, but a big play in the outfield kept it from being a tie game. With the bases loaded, Danielle Henderson drew a walk to make it 6-4. Jazmyn Jackson followed with a single down the right-field line to score Brianna Massey to make it 6-5, but Vanessa Alvarez was cut down at the plate on a great throw by Perez in right to keep it a one-run game.
The Bruins posted a pair of insurance runs in their half of the sixth. With one out, Spaulding walked, and one out later, Carda drew a free pass. LaRosa followed with a single to right to plate Spaulding to make it 7-5. Jelenicki then grounded one to Vonk at short, but the throw pulled Pettis off the bag, allowing Carda to tally the Bruins' eighth run.
UCLA takes its seven-game winning streak to Corvallis for a wraparound weekend series at Oregon State, Saturday, April 25 at 1 p.m., Sunday, April 26 at 12 p.m. and Monday, April 27 at 4 p.m. The last two games of the series will be broadcast on Pac-12 Networks.
