OKLAHOMA CITY — UCLA could not have asked for better.
In the bottom of the ninth, trailing by two runs with their season on the line, the record-setting Bruins were entering the sweet spot of their lineup. A clutch pinch-hitter leading off. The team leader in triples on deck. And their program’s all-time home run record holder in the hole. The third-best home run hitter in the nation waited in the wings to finish it off if necessary.
Jordan Woolery and Megan Grant, the two sluggers, turned to each other. There were 78 home runs between them, a number most rosters couldn’t eclipse collectively.
“We’re made for this,” Woolery told her. “I knew it was going to come down to us. … I felt like it was very poetic.”
Aesthetics don’t always do the job. The most dangerous hitting lineup in softball was bested by one of the most lethal pitching duos, complete with a head coach willing to yank his All-Americans on a hunch. UCLA pushed one run across in the bottom of the ninth off Woolery’s bat, but couldn’t score another and lost to Texas Tech 8-7 in the Women’s College World Series on Sunday night.
The Red Raiders will play No. 1 Alabama in an elimination semifinal match on Monday (7 p.m. ET). A win forces a second game in the double-elimination bracket.
UCLA’s big bats did damage with another three home runs tacked onto their four-home run run-rule outing against Arkansas. Woolery started it with a two-RBI shot that scored Grant’s hit by pitch in the first inning. It gave UCLA a slim 2-1 lead against NiJaree Canady, the two-time All-American making her record 17th WCWS start.
“Obviously they have a lot of power,” the righty Canady said. “[We were] trying to limit the damage as much as possible, going right at hitters, trusting our offense is going to take care of us.”
Canady hasn’t been as strong in the postseason as she was a year ago, when head coach Gerry Glasco said they “pushed her to the limit” in the championship series loss. He committed to finding her help in the circle and unearthed it in former UCLA pitcher Kaitlyn Terry.
Giving up an inning-leading double, walking one, hitting another and hitting a second that scored a game-tying run in the bottom of the third prompted Glasco to make his first change.
It hasn’t been unusual for the veteran to play hot potato with his two ace pitchers this postseason. Pitchers can be interchanged as often as a coach wants given they are both in the batting order.
Glasco’s strategy is one to change momentum based on “hunches.”
And on a haunting. In the super regional series against Florida, bad things kept happening in double. That’s a dangerous game to play against a lineup that hit 200 home runs in 60 games before stepping foot in Oklahoma City.
“The hits were back to back to back to back,” Glasco said. “That’s when I decided I got to quit delaying.”
The lefty Terry took the ball against her former team in an atmosphere immediately juiced by the prospect. She struck out Kaniya Bragg and kept mowing players she used to pitch against regularly in practices. The advantage was hers as she retired 10 of the first 11 batters with five strikeouts.
Great hitting always finds a way, and UCLA’s poked through in the seventh of a 6-3 game that began to drag.
Ramsey Suarez cut into the deficit with a lead-off homer to left. Glasco came out to the circle. His assistants wouldn’t.
“It’s kind of scary to go out there and tell [Terry] you’re taking her out, I’m going to tell you,” Glasco said. “Makes you take a deep breath.”
Canady allowing a single and a two-out, game-tying smash off Woolery’s bat had him taking more.
“You have to tip your hat to the greatness of Megan Grant and Jordan Woolery,” Glasco said. “Those are not just average softball players, All-Americans, those are great, great, great softball players. When you have to compete with them, you have to know they’re going to beat you a certain amount of time.”
It was a questionable decision to pull Terry, but yet again everyone saw earlier in the day how quickly pitching can go awry.
“I’m sure I thought of that because I thought a whole lot of stuff when it went wrong,” Glasco said. “The hardest part was doing it again. After it didn’t work, go back and making the moves after that was the hardest part.”
Glasco began interchanging his aces in the final two innings. It worked. Terry handled the middle of the order, and swapped out to Canady after giving up a single by Alexis Ramirez to left. Canady got pinch hitter Ramsey Suarez swinging to strand the runner.
Texas Tech scored two of its own against an overworked Taylor Tinsley, who threw 181 pitches and more than 700 consecutive in the postseason. UCLA relies heavily on its offense, an issue that was bound to come back and bite them.
Tinsley gave up eight runs on 14 hits. Terry’s double brought home the potential winning run and a fielding error an insurance one that became needed.
Terry walked Grant and Woolery singled up the middle past Terry, a play that got Texas Tech off easy. Glasco swapped one more time, giving Canady the win allowing five runs on five hits with seven strikeouts. Terry pitched five innings allowing two runs off five hits with seven strikeouts.
Against the best slugging team in the collegiate game’s history, Texas Tech could not have asked for better than seeing another day.