Struggling softball splits pair with UW
By Daily Bruin Staff
May 7, 1995 9:00 p.m.
Struggling softball splits pair with UW
By Rick Pal
With the way things are going, either the UCLA softball team’s
offense is saving its best for the playoffs, even at the expense of
a Pac-10 title, or the opponent’s pitchers have discovered ways to
stifle the once-unstoppable Bruin bats.
The scoring woes continued Sunday as second-ranked UCLA (41-6
overall, 23-4 in Pac-10) split a weekend series with No. 20
Washington (42-21, 13-11). The loss places the Bruins one game
behind top-ranked Arizona in the race for the Pac-10 title.
The teams appeared headed in different directions prior to
Sunday’s game. The Huskies recently came off a string of conference
victories and the Bruins had dropped games against Cal State
Northridge and Cal.
Nevertheless, it was UCLA who started the first game in the
right direction as the Bruins chipped away at the Huskies with
two-hit performances from Jennifer Brundage, Laurie Fritz and
pitcher Tanya Harding.
With Harding in a groove and Bruin runs slowly mounting, things
couldn’t go wrong as Harding notched a three-hit shutout while
collecting eight strikeouts to help the Bruins win 3-0.
However, the Bruin offense ran dry in the second game as it
could not support sophomore pitcher B’ Ann Burns, losing 1-0. Husky
pitcher Eve Gaw took the bite out of the Bruin offense by striking
out five batters and yielding only five hits.
Despite the loss, the Bruins showed some sign of life at the
plate, but could not put it together. UCLA had runners on first and
second when Kelly Howard, who was 2-for-3 with a double until that
point, grounded out sharply to first to end the game.
