OKLAHOMA CITY — UCLA coach Kelly Inouye-Perez gathered her team around her before the seventh inning.
Heads nodded as the Bruins listened. They knew what needed to happen: a rally.
But knowing it and doing it, especially against Oklahoma ace Kelly Maxwell, proved to be two different things Saturday.
UCLA didn’t even muster a runner in the seventh, going down in order as the second-seeded Sooners defeated the sixth-seeded Bruins 1-0 in a winner’s bracket game at the Women’s College World Series.
UCLA (43-11) will face Stanford in a must-win game at 4 p.m. PT Sunday.
The Bruins managed just two hits against the Sooners (56-6), and neither went for extra bases. Maxwell struck out 11 and held UCLA’s first three hitters in the lineup to an 0-for-10 day.
Even though the Bruins struggled to hit Maxwell, UCLA still had chances.
In the third inning, Maxwell hit the first batter and walked the second. She then struck out Maya Brady and induced an infield pop-up from Jadelyn Allchin, which was an automatic out based on the infield fly rule. But OU second baseman Alynah Torres lost the ball in the sun.
It knocked off her sunglasses and hit her in the face, which sent Torres to the dugout with an injury and moved the runners up a base. Maxwell got out of the jam with a strikeout of Sharlize Palacios.
UCLA again had a runner in scoring position in the fifth inning after a walk and a sacrifice bunt. But Maxwell again got out of it with a strikeout of Brady and a flyout from Allchin.
Maxwell again played escape artist in the sixth when a single and walk gave UCLA runners on first and second with only one out. Maxwell got Savannah Pola to fly out to left, then got a strikeout of pinch-hitter Ramsey Suarez to end the threat.
While Maxwell was befuddling the Bruins, the UCLA pitchers did the same to the Sooners much of the day.
Kaitlyn Terry started, went four innings and was solid against one of the nation’s best offenses. She allowed only three hits, struck out four and walked three.
But one of the hits she surrendered was a home run. On the first pitch of the bottom of the third inning, former St. Anthony’s High star Tiare Jennings rocketed the ball over the right-center wall. It just cleared Bruin center fielder Janelle Meoño’s glove.
Later in the inning, Meoño got one. She snagged what would’ve been a home run by Sooners slugger Kasidi Pickering, crashing into the wall but pulling the ball back into the field of play.
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Taylor Tinsley replaced Terry heading into the fifth inning, and she was stout, too. In two innings of work, she allowed only one hit and struck out two.
UCLA must now bounce back, something it hasn’t had to do in over a month. Saturday was its first loss since losing at home to Arizona on April 27.
More to come on this story.
