Unranked Highlanders upset Bruins
By Min Kang
March 3, 2010 9:28 p.m.
All of a sudden, the gears have come to a standstill. The same UCLA softball team that started the season blowing teams out in landslide fashion has struggled to score runs lately, and Wednesday was no different.
After jumping out to a promising 2-0 lead to start the game, the Bruin offense sputtered to a complete halt, allowing UC Riverside to come away with a 3-2 upset in front of its home crowd.
If anything, Wednesday’s game against the unranked Highlanders (5-9) was supposed to be the Bruins’ tuneup for the upcoming weekend. Instead, No. 5 UCLA dropped to 14-4 on the season and lost its second game in a row.
“We just did not get the job done,” coach Kelly Inouye-Perez said. “We had some opportunities (to score) and did not collect, and pitching-wise, we have to sharpen up. The bottom line is that we did not execute.”
The Bruins struck first in the top half of the opening frame on senior Megan Langenfeld’s two-run home run for the early cushion.
But the Highlanders countered in the third inning with three runs of their own, though not without some help from the Bruins. With one out and runners on the corners, freshman pitcher Destiny Rodino threw a wild pitch, allowing one run to score. On the ensuing pitch, Riverside’s Taylor Thomas doubled to left-center to drive in the tying run. That spelled the end of Rodino’s day, but not so for the Highlanders. Sophomore Aleah Macon replaced her freshman teammate and promptly gave up a triple on her first pitch, allowing the third Riverside run of the inning to reach home. In the end, Macon lasted only an inning after Langenfeld took over to finish the game.
“When I give somebody the ball, I expect her to get the job done,” Inouye-Perez said. “(Destiny) didn’t get it done. She gave up two runs, and Aleah gave up one and couldn’t stop the bleeding. As a result, it ended up being costly for us. It was three (runs) too many.”
For the Bruins, it certainly was not for a lack of opportunities. With one out and a runner on second in the fourth, sophomore Samantha Camuso grounded into a double play to end the threat. And again, in each of the fifth and sixth innings, UCLA had a runner in scoring position with just one out, only to come up empty-handed.
Junior shortstop Monica Harrison was the only Bruin to tally more than one hit at the end of the game, going three-for-three at the plate with one run scored.
“We definitely put ourselves in a position to take the game,” Harrison said. “But we just fell short and didn’t come up with the timely hits to get the RBI.”
