Softball falls short in 10-inning battle
By Daily Bruin Staff
April 26, 1995 9:00 p.m.
Softball falls short in 10-inning battle
By Melissa Anderson
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Top-ranked UCLA softball was up-ended by Cal State Northridge
yesterday afternoon, dropping the second game of a doubleheader,
1-0, in a tight 10-inning contest at Easton Stadium. The Bruins won
the opener, 2-0.
The No. 8 Matadors (35-14 overall) fell behind early in the
first game, as it appeared the Bruin bats  which have been
cold of late  were finally ready to come alive.
Junior second baseman Kelly Howard led off the inning with a
single and was sent to third after Jennifer Brundage struck out but
reached base on a passed ball. With two outs, pitcher Tanya Harding
was intentionally walked to load the bases. Alleah Poulson then hit
a single to right field to drive in Howard.
The Bruins (36-3) did not score again until the bottom of the
fifth when Poulson collected her second RBI of the game with a line
drive to left field which scored Brundage from second.
Defensively, Harding kept CSUN scoreless through seven innings
to boost her record to a perfect 10-0.
Sophomore pitcher B’Ann Burns took the mound for UCLA in the
nightcap and allowed just seven hits in 10 innings of work. But the
silent Bruin bats just couldn’t produce, as Matador pitchers
Jennifer Richardson and Kathy Blake-Small combined to hold UCLA to
just five hits.
Three of those hits came in the fourth inning, when the Bruins
threatened to take the lead on consecutive base-hits by Brundage
and Harding. Poulson followed suit with her third hit of the day,
but Brundage was called out at the plate trying to score.
Still scoreless after nine full innings of play, the
International Tie-Break Rule went into effect, meaning that each
team begins the inning with a runner on second base.
With Tamara Silvera on second, Northridge third baseman Kelly
Troovey dropped a sacrifice bunt to advance the runner to third.
Silvera then scored the only run of the ball game on a wild pitch
from Burns.
UCLA looked to even the score in the bottom of the inning after
freshman Laurie Fritz advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by
Howard. But the threat, and the ball game, ended when Fritz was
thrown out trying to steal home.
Although the run was not charged to Burns because of the
International Tie-Break Rule, it was the second time this season
the Bruins and Burns have lost a game with this rule in effect.
