Softball smothers Weber State in no-hitter to begin Los Angeles Regional

There were 12 hits in total Friday night and the Bruins had all of them.

No. 2 seed UCLA softball (47-5, 20-4 Pac-12) secured a 6-0 win in its opening game in the Los Angeles Regional over Weber State (26-20, 14-2 Big Sky) behind a combined no-hitter from redshirt junior Rachel Garcia and sophomore Holly Azevedo.

“Game one in the postseason is always the biggest game,” said coach Kelly Inouye-Perez. “We did not play our best ball tonight, but we used our speed and got stronger throughout the game. Rachel clearly dominated in the circle and was just being Rachel Garcia.”

Garcia got the start and turned in six perfect innings with 13 strikeouts – including eight straight between the second and fourth innings. The Wildcats saw first pitch strikes in all but three at-bats and never saw a count with three balls.

Garcia was pulled after the sixth inning with her perfect game still intact, as Inouye-Perez made the move to go to Azevedo.

“We’re in it to win this regional tournament,” Inouye-Perez said. “(Garcia’s) pitch count was up and she’s starting tomorrow. There are a lot of opportunities for her to get all the accolades, but she told me it’s about winning and making sure our staff can win this weekend.”

Azevedo came in relief in the seventh, but surrendered Weber State’s first base runner of the game when Takesha Saltern reached second base on a throwing error by Perez. She settled down, though, retiring the next three batters by a pop out to right and two strikeouts to secure the Bruins’ win.

At the plate, UCLA scored in the first and sixth innings behind 12 hits from seven different players. Sophomore infielders Briana Perez and Kinsley Washington led the way with three hits apiece.

Junior utility Bubba Nickles led off with a double and was able to score off an errant throw after Perez laid down a bunt in the opening frame. Garcia helped herself out with a sacrifice fly to center for the early 2-0 lead.

The Bruins got back to being the first team to score first after Arizona drew first blood in the last two games of their matchup last weekend.

Garcia said the series against Arizona helped UCLA press the reset button before the postseason, and at the same time, use it as motivation.

“Sometimes you just need that loss to pump you up more,” Garcia said. “But we did reset as a team and I look at it as a positive. We’ve seen (Arizona) before and we’ll probably see them again and it’s good for us either way for the postseason.”

UCLA piled on some more insurance runs in the sixth inning.

Freshman catcher Colleen Sullivan led off the inning with a single and scored on Washington’s RBI triple to center. Freshman utility Kelli Godin drove in Washington on a single up the middle and Nickles doubled to right center, bringing in another two runs. Perez’s third hit of the game drove in the Bruins’ fourth run of the inning for the 6-0 lead and what would be the final score.

Next up for UCLA is Missouri, a team it beat 11-3 earlier this season, at 3 p.m. on Saturday.

“It’s a day-by-day process from here on out,” said senior catcher Paige Halstead. “We have to keep working hard and not listen to the noise.”