OKLAHOMA CITY – It really isn’t that surprising when a pair of top-10 scoring offenses combine for 19 runs.
But when 16 of them come from one team in what should be one of the most competitive games of the season, that’s shocking.
No. 5 UCLA (46-11) pounded out 16 runs on 11 hits during Thursday’s Women’s College World Series opening-round game in Oklahoma City, handing No. 4 Florida (48-9) its worst loss since it fell 18-1 to Tennessee on April 2, 1999.
“I thought we played well but it’s a bummer to be sitting up here getting run-ruled at the College World Series,” coach Tim Walton said. “I’m happy with where we’re at, we just gotta do a good job of coming back and finding a way to rebound from this loss.”
The Bruins got the scoring started early and never let up.
UCLA left fielder Andrea Harrison hit the first of her two three-run homers in the top of the first, giving the Bruins a 3-0 lead.
UF catcher Tiffany DeFelice answered with a bases-clearing double in the second, tying the game at three and improving her on-base percentage to .543 since she returned from injury on May 1.
“I was really excited to be able to have that opportunity and be able to help out my team and get a little bit of momentum going,” DeFelice said. “Hopefully that would carry us into the next inning and Steph (Brombacher) would come out and make her pitches and we’d be OK.”
But from there it was all UCLA, as the Bruins tacked on three in the third and one in the fourth before exploding for nine in the sixth to invoke the run rule.
Megan Langenfeld continued to be UCLA’s most productive player, as the senior provided four hits, a solo homer, four runs scored and four RBIs in addition to five scoreless innings in the circle.
“UCLA played a heck of a ball game,” Walton said. “They had a heck of a game plan and they were hitting Stephanie pretty good.”
The Bruins were also aided by six illegal pitch calls, four of which came from Brombacher, who surrendered five runs in 2.1 innings of work.
The other two calls were against freshman Ensley Gammel, who relieved Brombacher in the third and gave up seven runs, six of which were earned, over 2.2 innings in her first action since May 8 against LSU.
In the first inning, an illegal pitch reversed an out call against a hitter that later scored, and in the third an illegal pitch gave UCLA’s Dani Yundin a free pass from third to home.
“That’s been a problem but I thought I had really taken care of it,” Brombacher said. “I’m just doing the best I can.”
