UCLA Softball Heads North to Face UC Berkeley

After holding on to beat the Cal State Fullerton Titans, 5-3, on Tuesday, the #1 ranked UCLA softball team has not lost a game since they fell to Stanford on April 8. This afternoon’s game marks the beginning of their last road trip until NCAA regionals.

On Tuesday against Cal State Fullerton, the Bruins struck first, scoring one run in the first inning. The Titans tied it up in the third when Sammie Vandiver hit an infield single, but UCLA came back in the fourth and put up two runs.

CSUF closed the gap to just one run when Julia Valenzuela hit a sacrifice fly in the bottom half of the fourth.

In the sixth, Aaliyah Jordan got a walk and Rachel Garcia smacked a single which was followed by a walk by Bubba Nickles. A bases loaded walk to Madeline Jelenicki in the sixth scored Jordan and gave the Bruins a 4-2 lead.

In the seventh, Kylee Perez was able to score on a sacrifice fly by Jordan to make it 5-2. Another Vandiver RBI single in the bottom of the seventh brought the score to 5-3, but relief pitcher Rachel Garcia got the final strikeout to bring the game to an end. The Bruins had officially extended their win streak to 11 games.

This afternoon’s game will feel a bit chillier than it is here in Los Angeles. We’re looking at about 65 degrees and partly cloudy at game time, which are pretty good conditions for a softball game.

The Bears have three individuals batting over .300 to UCLA’s five (with three more batting over .400), and their strongest pitcher has a 1.97 ERA to Garcia’s 1.10. Jordan is 5th in the nation in batting average, and as a team, UCLA is ranked #2 in the country.

This should be a great day for softball, and also an interesting one because the Bears are on an eight-game win streak. I expect that win streak to be snapped this afternoon.


Go Bruins!