Run support is a pitcher’s best friend.

And with the Bruin offense struggling to push runs across the plate, Kaitlyn Terry took things into her own hands. 

Behind the sophomore pitcher/outfielder’s three-run shot and two shutout innings to close the game, No. 9 seed UCLA softball (50-10, 17-5 Big Ten) advanced into the winners bracket of the Los Angeles regional with a 9-1 run-rule walk-off victory over UC Santa Barbara (34-25, 17-10 Big West). The Bruins improved to 66-4 all time against the Gauchos, pushing them to the brink of elimination in their first postseason appearance since 2008.

“My mindset is putting them on different sides,” Terry said. “If I’m pitching, then I’m focusing on pitching. If I’m in right field, I’m in right field, and hitting, same thing.”

Though Terry led her squad in innings pitched with 121 coming into Friday’s contest, she did not start in the circle, rather out in right field. 

Instead, UCLA coach Kelly Inouye-Perez elected to hand the ball to First Team All-Big Ten selection Taylor Tinsley. The junior right-hander – who started three games in the NCAA tournament last season – induced a trio of weak groundouts from the top of the order to start the game.

But in the second frame, Gaucho bats found Tinsley’s pitches. Three consecutive batters reached base via a pair of hits and an error, netting Santa Barbara an early 1-0 advantage.

Meanwhile, Big West Pitcher of the Year Malaya Johnson kept the Bruin hitters off balance early with her pitch mix as UCLA managed just three baserunners in its first time through the batting order.

“They showed up first. They won that inning,” Inouye-Perez said. “But our ability to settle in and get back to our game is what we need to do in the postseason.” 

Offensively, Savannah Pola continued to rake, logging a double and single in the first and third innings, respectively. The senior utility upped her season average to .442 – just one year removed from her career worst mark of .241.

Though Pola set the table for the junior sluggers – infielder Jordan Woolery and utility Megan Grant – they could not find a way to get her home. The “Bruin Bombers” were retired by Johnson in each of their first two plate appearances. 

Tinsley then returned to the circle, shutting down the Gaucho offense in the third and fourth innings, keeping the deficit at just one.

But it was two-out magic that finally flipped the script. 

With nobody on, freshman infielder/utility Kaniya Bragg was hit by a pitch before senior utility Taylor Stephens singled through the right side of the infield. Stephens – making her first start of the season and first plate appearance in over a year because of an upper body injury – reached base in both of her at-bats.

“Taylor Stephens missed literally the whole season,” Inouye-Perez said. “She has been a relentless rehabber to be able to do whatever she can to help her team, and I love that she got an opportunity to make a difference today.”

And after an unsuccessful challenge by Santa Barbara on a tag at third base on Bragg, Terry launched the first pitch she saw to straightaway center field – just her second home run of the season. 

But for Terry, the work was far from over. Immediately following her home run, Terry trotted out into the circle for the top of the fifth in relief of Tinsley and kept the Gauchos off the scoreboard, conceding just one baserunner through the final two innings.

“Knowing I just put us ahead, and then now I’m going out there (to pitch), it’s a great feeling,” Terry said. 

Graduate student outfielder Jessica Clements – a transfer from Cal Poly – added a three-run home run of her own over the center field wall to build a 6-1 lead in the bottom of the sixth.

And though it took almost the whole game, Woolery and Grant each logged RBIs in the contest’s final frame, with the latter launching her 24th round-tripper of the season to walk it off for the Bruins.

“One of our biggest things is having fun. That’s what we do best,” Clements said. “I think that’s what we did today.”