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Monday, March 31, 1997

SOFTBALL:

Players defeat OSU, Oregon and hand loss to Stanford, ArizonaBy Melissa Anderson

Daily Bruin Staff

It was hailed as a battle between two superpowers, the Superman and Batman of the collegiate softball world if you will. And to those who came back early from spring break to witness it, Saturday's duel between top-ranked Arizona and the No. 3 Bruins did not disappoint anyone.

After dropping the opener, 4-1, to the Wildcats in a game which could have gone either way, UCLA came back in the finale to hand Arizona a 5-1 loss, its second of the season and first in conference play.

In the nightcap, the Bruins (27-6, 9-3 Pac-10) struck early as Alleah Poulson knocked in Christie Ambrosi for a 1-0 lead in the first. Later in that inning, third baseman Julie Adams stepped up and launched an 0-2 pitch over the center field wall with two runners on base, putting UCLA up 4-1.

"I just go up and swing and try to hit the ball," Adams said of the home run. "If it goes out, it goes out."

Adams, who was 5-for-5 in game two, played with an injured shoulder ­ an old injury which was aggravated in the first game. She will probably sit out of practice this week, as will Ambrosi, who broke her left hand during a pick-off play early in the first game but went on to play through both games.

With freshman Christa Williams on the mound, the 'Cats could find none of the offensive spark which led them to victory in the first game. While Arizona (31-2, 5-1) racked up seven hits, mostly in the infield, it simply was not able to convert them into runs.

The Bruins were silenced after that explosive first inning before Kim Wuest broke out of a 1-for-24 slump with her first home run since Feb. 3 to cap the scoring in the sixth inning.

The Bruins might have swept the 'Cats if starter B'Ann Burns could only have one pitch back. Burns scattered 12 hits over seven innings, but UA needed only one to serve as the Bruin-killer. With both teams scoreless through three innings, Lety Pineda knocked her conference-leading 13th homer into left field to put Arizona up, 3-0.

Courtney Dale struck back with her second bomb of the season to put UCLA on the board, but the Bruins couldn't capitalize on the runners they put in scoring position, and that was all they would get.

Still, a split with a team UCLA hadn't defeated in six meetings ­ since the national title game in 1995 ­ is enough to make the Bruins feel as if the season is headed in the right direction.

"We're feeling really good," Ambrosi said. "We wanted to win both games, but after losing the first game and coming back to win the second, we showed them we were fighters."

* * *

The Bruins cruised through the early part of the break, knocking off Oregon and Oregon State in two conference double headers at Easton Stadium.

On March 22, UCLA swept the Ducks, 13-1, 8-0, behind stellar pitching performances by Burns and Williams. In the opener, Burns got the win and broke the school record for appearances set by Lisa Longaker with her 114th trip to the mound. Not to be upstaged by the senior, the freshman Williams threw her first career no-hitter in the nightcap. It was the first conference no-hitter for UCLA since 1995.

Against OSU, the Bruins cruised to a 5-2 win in game one as Burns recorded her 87th career victory. Williams gave up just one hit to shut down the Beavers for an 8-0 victory in the final game. Freshman Stacey Nuveman belted her 12th home run of the season while Nicole Ochoa added her second in as many games and her fourth on the year as UCLA extended its winning streak to 21.

Just past the halfway mark of the season, Nuveman is only two longballs short of the UCLA single-season record, and with a hit in both Arizona games, she has compiled a 25-game hitting streak. Meanwhile, Williams is showing what an Olympian is made of, allowing just one hit in 22 innings of work before the Arizona match-up, while holding opponents scoreless through 42-2/3 innings.

All good things must come to an end however, and UCLA found a spoiler in the form of Stanford, which ended the Bruin win streak with a 6-5 extra-inning victory in the opener. UCLA found itself down, 5-1, going into the bottom of the seventh, but scored four runs in the inning, led by Ochoa's two-run blast (her third in three games). Ambrosi followed with a triple to drive in Dale (who walked) and then scored the tying run on a Laurie Fritz single.

The Bruins held on in a defensive battle for two more innings before Stanford's Lauren Gellman singled home Kelly Yablonski under international tie-break rules, where teams begin each extra inning with a runner on second base.

In the second game, Dale had a no-hitter heading into the fifth inning before giving up a double. The Bruins jumped to a quick 3-0 lead in the third and received a solid performance from Ambrosi, who was 5-9 against Stanford scoring two runs and an RBI.

CHARLES KUO/Daily Bruin

UCLA freshman Christa Williams pitches a no-hitter against Oregon, part of a scoreless streak lasting 42 2/3 innings.

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