With a subtle shrug, Kelly Inouye-Perez summed it up as best she could.
“Well,” said the UCLA softball coach after the top-seeded Bruins lost 14-0 to Oklahoma“that sucked.”
There wasn’t much more to add after the big matchup on the Mary Nutter collegiate classic turned into a joke.
The Bruins (17-1) scored just three hits in Cathedral City on Sunday, while the No. 2 Sooners (13-1) scored six home runs off 20 hits to give UCLA its second consecutive head-to-head shutout loss . series. Last June, Oklahoma defeated the Bruins 15-0 in the semifinals of the Women’s College World Series to close out their season. UCLA has lost four of its last five games to the two-time defending champion Sooners.
The teams ranked first and second in the preseason, and UCLA, which had three wins against ranked teams at the Clearwater Invitational two weeks ago, jumped into first place when Oklahoma lost to Baylor on February 19.
UCLA posted three more standings victories at the Mary Nutter Classic, highlighted by Megan Faraimo’s five-inning no-hitter against No. 3 Florida on Thursday, raising anticipation for Sunday’s tournament final. MLB Network planned to broadcast the game on tape delay, making it the network’s first college softball game. It drew a packed crowd standing a dozen rows deep on both foul lines and around the outfield.
But it wasn’t long before the UCLA fans along the third base line fell silent.
Oklahoma chased Faraimo in the second inning and tagged her for four runs, all on homers and eight hits in 1 2/3 innings. The fifth-year senior gave up every single with two outs and two strikeouts.
“You’re trying to expand the zone and these hitters are so good and they’re still getting their bearings,” Faraimo said. “So I think for me it has a lot to do with movement, disrupting the timing. … But with the two out I need to finish strong.
Faraimo worked out a basesloaded malfunction in the first inning, but gave up a solo homer to No. 9 batter Alyssa Brito to start a streak of seven OU runners to reach base. Oklahoma star Tiare Jennings knocked Faraimo out of the game with a two-run homer. Faraimo has allowed 17 hits and 11 earned runs in her last three appearances against the Sooners, including two games during last year’s World Series.
After Faraimo, Lauren Shaw gave up five hits and four runs in two-thirds of an inning before freshman Taylor Tinsley, who went the distance on Saturday-evening in a 3-0 win against Texas A&M, closed the game. Tinsley gave up eight hits and five earned runs.
“I deliberately threw Megan out because I wanted her to learn now before it was at the end,” said Inouye-Perez. “If Megan gets hit, it puts us in a position (that) we haven’t been in yet.”
In a charmed start to the season, UCLA eliminated six ranked teams in its first 17 games. Battling a frenetic opening schedule with 18 games in 18 days, freshmen like Megan Grant and Jordan Woolery turned in timely at bats and entered Sunday’s game with 21 and 17 RBIs, respectively. Senior Maya Brady went on a 10-game hitting streak in the top-ranked matchup.
But against Oklahoma starter Alex Storako, the three hot-hitting Bruins combined for one hit in six at-bats when Grant singled in the first inning.
“It’s early,” Brady said. ‘It’s February. They’re obviously a great team, but (it’s) early, there’s still a big part of the year to go and it’s not what happens, but it’s what you do after that, and I know this team is coming out harder will come than ever.
