From delays to errors to a walk-off walk, the Bruins were in for a long night.

Roaring fans electrified Easton Stadium well before sixth-year pitcher Brooke Yanez set foot in the circle Saturday night, as No. 2 UCLA softball (42-4, 17-3 Pac 12) clinched its home series against Arizona State (21-19, 5-12) via a 9-1 victory. Despite the run rule being enforced in the sixth inning, the game lasted nearly three hours.

Yanez struggled with her accuracy, as the starter hit three batters despite recording six strikeouts. But on-field play was hardly consistent either, as a cocktail of interference, errors and reviews plagued Yanez’s outing.

All of the above was compounded by the entrance of a new catcher in redshirt junior Alyssa Garcia during the third inning, when redshirt junior Sharlize Palacios exited after taking a hit to the hand on a batter’s backswing.

Through it all, Yanez stood her ground in the circle, throwing a career-high 116 pitches through the six-inning game.

“Control the controllables,” Yanez said. “There’s a lot of chaos going on. But I think we work well under pressure … when things kind of don’t go our way or when the game slows down like that.”

While UCLA recorded four errors in the field, coach Kelly Inouye-Perez said Yanez’s performance changed the pace of the game in a productive way – even if it made things more difficult for the Bruin defense.

“The positive is Brooke was spinning the ball so well tonight that the ball was coming off the bat very weird. It wasn’t routine plays,” Inouye-Perez said. “It was tricky spinning balls that put us in a position to kind of force those errors.”

Despite Bruin fielding errors, the Sun Devils were largely withheld from reaching base. Four hits and a singular walk defined Arizona State’s offensive effort, with three runners touching base on UCLA errors.

On the other side, UCLA’s high-scoring offense struck again, recording seven RBIs and 11 hits. The absence of a 1-2-3 inning on either side drew the battle out farther, as Bruin batters fought off a surplus of 30 pitches from the Sun Devil bullpen, and freshman infielder Jordan Woolery was the only player to go yard all game.

Redshirt senior utility Anna Vines recorded an error, walk and RBI between her position at second base and three trips to the plate. For Vines, patience was the key Saturday night.

“I had a plan,” Vines said. “I wanted to get a really good pitch. So anything that was kind of out of the zone I was trying to lay off on and just wanted to come through for the Bruins.”

Vines was met with two outs and the bases loaded as she stepped up to plate in the bottom of the sixth. With only one run needed to declare a mercy-rule win, she restrained from taking a big swing and instead watched as Arizona State’s Kenzie Brown threw ball four, walking in the game-winning run.

“It’s special. The Bruins will be a part of my life, so doing something like this will always hold super important memories,” Vines said.

It’s a bittersweet victory for many of the Bruins, including Vines and Yanez, as this weekend marks the last home conference series for the team’s graduating seniors. But contrasting with the evening’s statistical strangeness, Inouye-Perez said she sees nothing out of the ordinary about the way this generation of seniors shows support for one another’s successes.

“Our saying is we have each other’s backs,” Inouye-Perez said. “I love seeing the relationships and the support that you see from … the older girls to the younger girls.”

The series finale will take place Sunday at 2 p.m., when the graduating Bruins will be honored during Senior Day at Easton Stadium.