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FULLERTON, Calif. - Senior Delaney Spaulding tied for the team home run lead with her fifth of the season, but the seventh-ranked Bruins dropped a 9-4 decision to #1 Florida on Friday at the Judi Garman Classic at Anderson Family Field.
The Bruins had just four hits from four different players. In the circle, redshirt senior Paige McDuffee (0-1) failed to retire a batter, allowing three unearned runs, one hit and one walk. Junior Selina Ta'amilo struck out one in 2/3 of an inning of relief, giving up an unearned run and one hit. Redshirt freshman Rachel Garcia struck out two in 1 1/3 innings, allowing four runs (three earned), four hits and one walk. Junior Johanna Grauer tossed the last four innings, fanning three and giving up a run, three hits and three walks.
UCLA (14-4) snapped Florida's consecutive scoreless inning streak at 30 in the top of the first. Spaulding led off with a walk, moved to second on a sacrifice by junior Kylee Perez and to third on a single to center by sophomore Paige Halstead. Two outs later, Garcia struck out on a ball in the dirt, but it went to the backstop, allowing Garcia to reach and Spaulding to score the game's first run.
Florida (19-1) responded with four in its half of the first, scoring its initial run on an error by McDuffee, its second run on a sacrifice fly by Nicole DeWitt and its next two on a homer by Janell Wheaton to go up 4-1. The Gators added four more in the second on a two-run double by Sophia Reynoso, an RBI double by Kayli Kvistad and a Bruin error by Perez that scored Kvistad.
In the third, the Bruins got closer on one swing. Sophomore Zoe Shaw led off with a single to center and came home on Spaulding's opposite-field homer to right to make it 8-3 Florida.
The Gators tacked on one more in the fourth on an RBI single by Justine McLean to make it 9-3. UCLA got the run back in the top of the sixth, as Perez led off with a triple to left and scored two outs later on a wild pitch to get the Bruins to within five.
Next up for the Bruins is a Saturday night matchup against host Cal State Fullerton at 7:30 p.m. Live stats will be available at UCLABruins.com, while live video for a fee will be available at FloSoftball.com.