Oklahoma puts quick stop to UCLA’s title hopes

By Greg Lewis

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

OKLAHOMA CITY “”mdash; For UCLA, the Buck should have stopped at
second.

In a wild ending to the NCAA championship game, UCLA’s
Crissy Buck misjudged a baserunning situation and became the final
out as Oklahoma won its first softball national championship
Monday, beating the Bruins 3-1 at Don E. Porter Stadium.

With Buck on second, Toria Auelua at first and one out in the
seventh inning, Amanda Freed hit a fly ball out to left. As the
throw came back to the pitcher, Buck thought Sooners pitcher
Jennifer Stewart (34-6) hadn’t entered the pitching circle.
Stewart in fact had stepped into the circle, meaning the ball was
dead. But Buck illegally took off for third, making an automatic
out.

As soon as the umpire signalled the third out, the Sooners
(66-8) stormed the field and rushed the pitching circle in
celebration.

“I didn’t even see what happened,” Oklahoma
head coach Patty Gasso said. “I just saw the umpire give the
out sign, and ran on the field.”

Looking back at UCLA’s (44-12) season, the bizarre ending
was hardly unexpected.

“Seven of nine players were out of position this
season,” head coach Sue Enquist said. “We lost our
All-American pitcher (Courtney Dale) at the beginning of the
season, and we were without our two All-Americans (Olympians Stacey
Nuveman and Christie Ambrosi).”

“If it was able to happen,” Bruin senior Julie Adams
said, “it happened to us.”

The Bruins rode the arm of Freed (28-8) all the way to the
championship game. But when the end came, they could not crack open
the door. Ironically, as the final out was recorded, Natasha
Watley, who was a perfect 3-for-3 on the game, was coming up to
bat.

“I’m very pleased with Amanda’s savvy in the
circle,” Enquist said of Freed, who matched her season-high
with 13 strikeouts against the Sooners. “Amanda took the
reins and carried this team through a tough tournament. I
couldn’t be more proud. The best news for me after this game
is that she’s got a lot of softball left in a UCLA
uniform.”

Freed, along with senior catcher Julie Marshall and freshman
first baseman Tairia Mims, made the All-Tournament team.

The game was the last for seniors Marshall, third baseman Julie
Adams and second baseman Lyndsey Klein. Each ended her career with
one NCAA championship, from last season.

UCLA’s lone run came in the bottom of the fifth when
Watley and Adams singled to lead off the inning. Julie Marshall
then sent a sacrifice fly deep enough to left to allow Watley to
tag up from the third.

Oklahoma scored all three of its runs in the third inning. Erin
Evans singled to lead off the third and All-American Lisa Carey
cracked a towering home run to left field for the first two runs.
Andrea Davis then singled to right and eventually was singled home
by Kelli Braitsch.

With the win, the Sooners became the first team to win the
College World Series in its first trip since 1983, when Texas
A&M did it.

“You sit in your backyard and watch UCLA win
championships. Now it’s time to take one from them,”
Gasso said.

To get to the championship, the Bruins first had to beat
Washington on Saturday and Southern Mississippi on Sunday.

UCLA’s game against Washington (62-9) was one neither team
will forget. With the Bruins leading 3-0 on Friday, and the Huskies
poised to load the bases with only one out, the umpire stopped the
game. Three tornadoes had touched down in Western Oklahoma and one
was believed to be on a path to Don E. Porter Stadium.

“We were thinking especially of the safety of the fans. It
was in the best interests to clear the facility,” said Cindy
Masner, chairwoman of the NCAA Women’s Softball
Committee.

With Washington in the middle of a rally and Freed pitching a
shutout, neither team wanted to stop the game.

In the end though, the break helped UCLA.

“I didn’t get much sleep last night,” Freed
said the next day. “But I felt better (today). I had more
command of my pitches.”

The game resumed on Saturday with two runners on base, and a 3-0
count to the nation’s top home run hitter, Washington catcher
Jenny Topping. Freed intentionally walked Topping to load the bases
and bring up the nation’s second-best home run hitter, Jaime
Clark.

Clark put the first pitch in the left-center gap for a two-run
double, scoring two runs. Freed then got Jennifer Spediacci and Mo
Downs to ground out and end the inning.

“I knew that (Freed) didn’t have a chance to get
going yet, so I wanted to be aggressive right away,” Clark
said. “But I tried not to think too much, I don’t do
well when I think.

UCLA had taken the lead in the second when Lyndsey Klein reached
on a fielder’s choice with one out. Tairia Mims singled to
center, taking second as center fielder Erin Helgeland tried to
throw out Klein at third. Then, as Topping got the ball and walked
up to the circle to settle down pitcher Jamie Graves, Klein saw
that time had not been called and raced home.

“That was a play where my instinct just took over. I knew
I would have been sorry if I didn’t go,” Klein
said.

The Huskies’ other scoring opportunity came with two outs
in the second when Helgeland singled and Rosie Leutzinger doubled
to left. Helgeland tried to take home on the play, but Bruin
leftfielder Lupe Brambila and shortstop Watley worked a perfect
relay throw to nail the runner.

UCLA went up 3-0 in the third when Adams singled up the middle
and Klein put the ball over the left-field bleachers for her tenth
home run on the year and second in the Series.

“You can’t let Lyndsey Klein beat you,” said
Washington head coach Teresa Wilson. “We’ve said it all
year, we can’t let their best hitter beat you.”

Then on Sunday, the Bruins took on Southern Miss. (63-13) and
Honda Award winner Courtney Blades (52-8). UCLA jumped on Blades
early, putting up five runs in the first two innings.

Freed, who would go on to pitch a two-hitter, opened that game
with a single to left. Adams then hit a long fly ball to left
field, which Eagle Crystal Stevens misplayed and allowed to go over
the fence for a home run.

In the second, Dale led off with a double and Mims hit another
long fly ball to left. Stevens again misplayed the ball, this time
letting it bounce out of her glove over the fence for another home
run. Two batters later, Freed sent another ball to deep left, which
Stevens again misplayed, allowing the ball to travel over the
four-foot high outfield fence for a 5-0 Bruin lead.

Felicia Gonzalez came in to relieve Blades in the third, but
that did not stop the Bruins from picking on Stevens. After Watley
led off the fifth with a single and a stolen base, Adams singled to
center. On the throw back to the pitcher, Stevens made her fourth
miscue of the game, throwing the ball into the ground and allowing
Watley to score.

Freed pitched a scoreless first five innings before giving way
to Dale, who made her first pitching appearance of the World
Series. Dale pitched two perfect innings for the Bruins.

But then came Monday, and with it the loss to the Sooners.

While UCLA may have lost this year’s national
championship, the streak of every fourth-year Bruin winning a
national championship is not in danger yet. With a 7-1 postseason
record this year, Enquist upped her career post-season record to
68-15, an .819 winning percentage. Next year UCLA also returns the
1999 Pac-10 Pitcher of the Year, Dale, and the nation’s top
hitter in 2000, Olympian Stacey Nuveman.