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Monday, April 29, 1996

Bruin bats on fire as UCLA extends win streak in OregonBy Brent Boyd

Daily Bruin Contributor

The UCLA softball team travelled to the rain-soaked Pacific Northwest last weekend, and returned with its mission accomplished. The bad weather decided to give the Oregon schools a break, but the Bruins refused to do the same, sweeping doubleheaders over Oregon and Oregon State on consecutive days.

Not only did UCLA extend its winning streak to eight games, but it did it in dominating fashion. After their Sunday sweep of Oregon, 8-1 and 9-5, the Bruins (36-8 overall, 15-7 Pacific-10) completed a weekend in which they outscored the Ducks and Beavers by a combined 30-6, and doubled their opponents' hit total with 42.

The previous day, UCLA shut out Oregon State, 3-0 and 10-0, to extend its 43-game winning streak over the Beavers (14-26, 2-13).

In the opener, the Bruins were fueled by home runs. In fact, if not for the long ball, the Bruins and Beavers could still be going at it in a scoreless tie.

All three Bruin runs came home as a result of round-trippers in the third inning. Kim Wuest's 10th home run of the season put her among the top-five all-time Bruin home run hitters, as well as giving UCLA a 1-0 lead. A two-run shot by Julie Adams gave the Bruins a three-run lead and the eventual 3-0 victory.

The Bruin firepower continued into the second game when Alleah Poulson hit a base-clearing double in the first, followed by Julie Marshall's fifth home run of the year to give UCLA a 4-0 advantage after two.

That would give the Bruins enough runs for the victory, but not enough to satisfy them. Behind Adams' 2-for-3 performance to go along with Nicole Odom's three-hit, four RBI afternoon, UCLA scored six more runs en route to its 10-0 victory.

A change in venues from Corvallis to Eugene could not slow down the Bruin hitting attack, as UCLA's domination in Eugene was quite evident throughout much of the afternoon.

The Bruins' 11 hit attack, fueled by two each from Poulson, Wuest and Christie Ambrosi, was too much for Oregon (19-22, 5-10), as it scored three in the fourth and four in the sixth to propel the team to an 8-1 victory.

Leading 1-0 in game two, the Bruins connected on five hits and took advantage of two Oregon errors to score five runs and take a commanding 6-0 lead. Oregon cut the deficit to one, but three seventh-inning Bruin runs sealed the fate for the Ducks, handing them a 9-5 defeat.

Kelly Howard led the UCLA attack, going 3-for-4 with two RBIs, while while Adams, Poulson, Wuest and Marshall all contributed two hits as well.

However, the Bruin hitting attack wasn't the only story of the weekend. In 19 innings of work, junior pitcher B'Ann Burns allowed opponents only two runs on 11 hits while winning three games, increasing her record to 24-5.

With the four victories, the Bruins have run their record to 8-0 thus far into their season-ending 14-game road trip, with stops in the Bay Area and Washington remaining.

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