UCF Softball undone by free passes, UCLA power in Game 1 Super Regional loss
For three innings and change, it looked like UCF softball might be able to slow down the most prolific offense in college softball history.
Then the walks started.
A six-run fifth inning — fueled almost entirely by free passes and the long ball — sent No. 8 national seed UCLA to a 9-1 run-rule victory over the Knights in Game 1 of the NCAA Los Angeles Super Regional Friday night at Easton Stadium, forcing UCF into an elimination scenario for Game 2 Saturday night on ESPN.
“That was quite a game until that last inning,” head coach Cindy Ball-Malone said following the loss. “That’s what this team does when you give up so many freebies. We give up five hits. If we eliminate those freebies and give up solo shots, the score is 5-1 and we’re still playing right now.”
The Knights (41-18-1) limited the Bruins to just five hits in the contest, but surrendered nine free passes — six walks and three hit batters — and five of those baserunners eventually crossed the plate. That story, more than anything Taylor Tinsley threw Friday night, is what decided Game 1.
Stuewe keeps Bruin bats at bay early
Freshman right-hander Ava Stuewe gave UCF exactly what it needed through the first three innings, working around the type of lineup that leads the nation in on-base percentage (.494), slugging percentage (.836) and home runs (193). The Fredericksburg, Texas native induced weak contact and kept the Bruin bats from doing their typical damage — until she didn’t.
The first crack came in the second inning, when freshman Bri Alejandre launched a solo home run to center field, her 23rd of the season, to give UCLA a 1-0 lead. It was the 194th home run of the year for the Bruins, further extending their all-time NCAA single-season record.
UCF nearly answered in the top of the fourth. Senior Aubrey Evans laced a ball high off the top of the right field wall in right, turning it into a leadoff double, and eventually advanced to third on a passed ball. But a groundout to the pitcher and a lined out to short ended the threat, and Evans never scored.
The damage in the bottom of the fourth was more severe. After a leadoff walk to Alejandre and a hit batter to Kaniya Bragg, Stuewe’s night was over. She had kept one of the nation’s most potent offenses off the board for three innings, but facing the Bruins a second time through the order proved to be the breaking point. Stuewe departed having faced 15 batters and allowing three runs on one hit — all three earned.
“I was going to go back to her too, and she knew that,” Ball-Malone said. “With a lineup like this, you have to think: how many times do you want them to see any of our pitchers? They make such great adjustments. But how exciting for our future. We have three freshman pitchers that can really do some stuff.”
Isabella Vega came on in relief and worked out of the fourth inning with a sacrifice bunt, a Soo-Jin Berry groundout that scored one, and a Ramsey Suarez pinch-hit two-run double down the left field line that pushed the UCLA lead to 3-0. A pair of walks to Rylee Slimp and Megan Grant — the nation’s leader in home runs, slugging percentage and OBP — loaded the bases before Jordan Woolery lined out to strand two. The inning was survivable, even if uncomfortable.
Sierra Humphreys provides the highlight reel
But before UCLA broke the game open, the night’s most electric play belonged to a Knight.
With two runners on and the bases loaded at the end of the fourth inning, sophomore second baseman Sierra Humphreys dove up the middle to snag a sharply hit ball and strand the bases loaded, keeping the deficit at three. The Corona, California native — playing just over an hour from her hometown — had the crowd buzzing, and she carried that energy directly into the UCF dugout.
Leading off the fifth inning, Humphreys launched a 2-2 pitch over the left field wall for her 14th home run of the season, slicing the deficit to 3-1 and briefly stoking the flame of a UCF rally.
“I was just really trying to buy into our game plan going into this game,” Humphreys said. “I think my first at bat I liked it, so just going off the first at bat into my second at bat.”
The homer — and the moment that preceded it — was the kind of play that tells you exactly who Humphreys has become for this program. Ball-Malone made the decision to move her to second base this season, and the payoff was on full display Friday night.
“She made me look really smart, didn’t she?” Ball-Malone said with a laugh. “CC is highly athletic and quicker than people think. We do this thing, scrambled eggs, where I just have them move around, and it ended up where Coco was at third and CeCe was at second. We started rolling double plays. And she knows she is really athletic and good. I think that opened up her whole game.”
The fifth inning unravels everything
UCLA answered immediately and emphatically.
Aleena Garcia and Alejandre reached on consecutive hit batters to open the bottom of the fifth, and two pitches later Bragg sent a three-run home run down the left field line to put the Bruins up 6-1. Macy Miles entered after Vega allowed a single to Berry that advanced all the way to third on a throwing error, and Jolyna Lamar walked to put runners on the corners with one out and the run-rule in play.
Rylee Slimp then deposited a three-run home run over the right field wall to end it — the 29th mercy-rule victory of the season for UCLA, a new program record.
“Did we give up two hits in that inning?” Ball-Malone said afterward. “Five hits in the game. You can’t put them on. We know that. Solo home runs, we’re still playing in this game.”
Tinsley was brilliant from start to finish, allowing just three hits and two strikeouts across five innings for her 31st win of the season and 23rd complete game.
‘They have to beat us’
Ball-Malone was measured and direct with her team in the aftermath, and equally candid with the media about what went wrong and what has to be different in Game 2.
“I think just learning,” she said when asked what adjustments she wants from her hitters. “They just need to go for it. When our team cannonballs in, we’re really good. I think we were just testing the water, tiptoeing. And we know that’s not how we play. We’re chippy. We’re feisty. We’re disruptors. And we need to act like that.”
Ball-Malone acknowledged the Bruins’ quality while refusing to concede the series.
“This isn’t to take away from Tinsley. She’s an amazing pitcher and she’s got some great stuff,” she said. “But we’ve got to go after her and attack her just as their offense is doing to our pitchers. We may not have 100 and however many home runs, but this team can swing it, too.”
For Humphreys, Friday night carried a significance being she was playing a short drive from home with family in the stands.
“It was obviously a full circle moment,” she said. “It gave us all something to play for, because I’m not the only one from California. I know Coach Bear is, too. So it gave us another reason and something bigger to play for at the end of the day. This is just a game, and we were playing for each other and playing for something bigger than ourselves.”
That mindset, Ball-Malone insisted, will carry UCF into Saturday.
“Regardless of what everybody says, what’s on paper, all of that — they want to go after it, they want to play at the World Series, too,” she said. “We’ve seen teams come back and win in two games. It’s going to be a tall task. But I just want to see them fight. And we’re going to be feisty, we’re going to be chippy tomorrow. And they’re going to have to beat us.”
Game 2 is Saturday night at 10 p.m. ET on ESPN.
