Freshman Goerl pitches perfect game against Highlanders
By Daily Bruin Staff
March 6, 2001 9:00 p.m.
By Vytas Mazeika
Daily Bruin Contributor
Try saying “no runs, no hits, no walks, no errors”
five times fast. Now try pitching it.
In a dominant 10-0 win over UC Riverside on Tuesday, UCLA
freshman pitcher Keira Goerl tossed the 15th perfect game and 76th
no-hitter in Bruin softball history (records began in 1980). UCLA
(28-0) went on to win the second game of the doubleheader 4-0.
“You always try for a perfect game, but it doesn’t
always end up like that,” Goerl said.
All day long, Goerl (9-0) hit her spots and got ahead in the
count. In the second inning, she struck out the side using only
nine pitches, a feat in itself.
Using her movement and velocity, Goerl recorded six strikeouts
in the first four innings. But when push came to shove, it was
UCLA’s solid defense that shut the door.
With the eight-run mercy rule in effect after the fourth inning,
Goerl only needed to blank the Highlanders (6-15-1) one more time
to complete the first perfect game by a Bruin since Kaci Clark
accomplished the feat against Ohio State on March 2, 1996.
The first two batters in the top of the fifth took an aggressive
approach to the plate, but grounded out harmlessly after each one
put the first pitch in play. With her work cut out for her, Goerl
got junior Jessica Jenkins, the Riverside pitcher, to hit a weak
grounder toward left field that UCLA junior infielder Stacey
Nuveman scooped up and gunned to first base, putting the final seal
on a perfect day.
“When it’s coming down to the wire like that, you
step it up to another level and nothing is getting through,”
said Nuveman, whose two home runs and five RBIs on the day marked
the 60th home run and 201st RBI in her career.
The Bruins actually pitched back-to-back no-hitters, as junior
Amanda Freed no-hit UNLV on Sunday. But Freed allowed a simple
walk.
“Perfect games in this day and age are hard to come
by,” UCLA Head Coach Sue Enquist said.
One hit. One walk. One error. That’s the fine line between
a perfect game and anything else.
