Softball slides past Missouri with mercy-rule victory, advances to regional finals
Junior center fielder Bubba Nickles hit two home runs in UCLA softball’s win over Missouri on Saturday. Nickles also recorded five RBIs, good for a new career high. (Alice Naland/Daily Bruin)
By Coral Smith
May 18, 2019 6:52 p.m.
The Bruins continue to outplay their opponents on both sides of the ball.
No. 2 seed UCLA softball (48-5, 20-4 Pac-12) defeated Missouri (33-24, 12-12 SEC) in five innings by a score of 9-1 to advance to the championship of the Los Angeles Regional. It was the second time the Bruins had mercy-ruled the Tigers, after defeating them 11-3 in February.
The Bruins wasted no time getting on the scoreboard, plating three runs in their first three at-bats. First it was junior centerfielder Bubba Nickles, who drove a home run to center field in the first at-bat of the inning.
Then, after sophomore shortstop Briana Perez reached on a throwing error on a bunt, redshirt sophomore utility Aaliyah Jordan brought her in on a home run of her own.
“Our energy was high from the beginning, from the get-go,” Nickles said. “It was just a great momentum builder that we carried through the game.”
The bats on both teams stayed relatively quiet after that until the bottom of the fourth, with neither team advancing a runner past first base. But it was at this point that UCLA broke the game open.
The Bruins loaded the bases on a fielding error, a blooper single to left and a walk. Another fielding error by the Tigers’ second baseman, their third of the game, brought in two of those runs on a grounder, followed by a bunt single for freshman utility Kelli Godin that reloaded the bases.
Nickles proceeded to hit her second home run of the game, a grand slam to left center to clear the bases and give the Bruins a 9-0 lead.
Nickles finished the game with two home runs for the third time in her career and five RBIs, setting a new career high.
“It was probably one of the best performances I’ve seen from (Nickles) in her time as a Bruin,” said coach Kelly Inouye-Perez. “She puts herself in a position to slow the game down, and then you get to just see her thrive under pressure because she just loves to play.”
UCLA collected six hits overall off Missouri’s pitcher, with seven of its nine total runs being unearned, including all six in the fourth inning.
After her perfect six innings in Friday’s game against Weber State, redshirt junior pitcher Rachel Garcia started again for UCLA, giving up just one hit and one walk in her 4 1/3 innings of work and striking out six.
Freshman pitcher Megan Faraimo came into the game in the fifth to try and clinch the victory for the Bruins, but gave up an unearned run to close the gap to 9-1. Garcia would return to the circle to record the last out of the inning and seal the mercy-rule victory for UCLA.
“(Sophomore pitcher Holly Azevedo) coming in yesterday and (Faraimo) coming in today took pitches off me, so that’s the most important part,” Garcia said. “It’s just about maintaining my pitch count and trying to keep it low.”
With the win UCLA advances to the regional championships Sunday at 2 p.m., where it will face the team that advances out of the loser’s bracket Saturday.
