Woochifer
Joined: 12/15/11 Posts: 9,123
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Posted Sat, May 29 8:01 pm
(Edited Sat, May 29 8:06 pm)
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In response to Spring Sports: It's now all about the diamonds (Woochifer)
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“Never underestimate the heart of a champion”
Might be too early to invoke Rudy T, but the Bruins showed a lot of heart in this series.
UCLA closed out Virginia Tech in the Super Regional with a 6-0 two-hit shutout by Rachel Garcia to advance to the Women’s College World Series. Rachel gave up only 2 hits and struck out 13 in a dominant outing, bouncing back from her worst game since 2017 on Thursday.
The Bruin lineup finally figured out VT ace Keely Rochard and were able to score in different ways in each of the 1st 3 innings until Maya Brady sealed the game with a 3-run HR in the 5th.
After going down 0-1 in the series, the Bruins really dug in and showed what were made of.
The Bruins will play Florida State in the WCWS in a matchup of the last two national champions. The Seminoles were the last team to beat the Bruins in the WCWS when tournament MVP Meghan King outdueled Rachel in a semifinal thriller, before taking the if necessary to advance to the championship series. UCLA beat the Noles last season as well in a game that the Bruins won in a walkoff. Meghan King won’t be on the field, but Rachel will. |
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Woochifer
Joined: 12/15/11 Posts: 9,123
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Posted Sun, May 30 10:15 am
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In response to Spring Sports: It's now all about the diamonds (Woochifer)
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The Bruin baseball team ended the regular season with a 3-0 shutout of ASU for a series sweep. This was exactly what the Bruins needed for postseason positioning. With a 4th place finish in the Pac-12, they're a lock to make the NCAA tournament when the brackets are announced on Monday. The only question is which regional they get assigned to. In all likelihood, UCLA will rank among the top 32 teams, which would lock them into a regional destination based on their seeding. Because of how far behind they are in the RPI, UCLA almost certainly won't place among the top 16 and host the regional. But, with the sweep over ASU, they also likely won't have to play one at one of the top seeds.
The starting rotation looked good this weekend. Bullpen had 9th inning meltdown on Thursday, but they also had a 21-4 cushion to work off of. Otherwise, this was as good a weekend as the Bruins could have hoped for. They got Matt McLain and JT Schwartz back in the lineup, and that seemed to make a difference. McLain sets the tone for the Bruins in different ways, and his absence was noticeable.
It's been an inconsistent up and down season for the Bruins. But, now the slate is wiped clean for the postseason. Hopefully, with the Bruins winning their last 4 games in a row, they've righted the ship and positioned themselves to play like the team everyone projected them to be before the season started. |
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Woochifer
Joined: 12/15/11 Posts: 9,123
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Posted Tue, Jun 01 10:02 am
(Edited Tue, Jun 01 10:11 am)
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In response to Spring Sports: It's now all about the diamonds (Woochifer)
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With the Bruins' weekend road sweep over ASU, they got as good a regional placement as they could've hoped for. They're headed out to the Lubbock Regional, where they will first face North Carolina (27-25) which didn't have a great season but was able to slide into the tournament field thanks to their strength of schedule (#8). Other teams in the region are host Texas Tech and Army.
This is not a scary regional, and the Bruins stand a decent chance if they can get quality starts and don't have to go deep into the bullpen. UCLA has been relying on true freshman Max Rajcic as the closer, and he has greatly improved into a solid closer despite only becoming available midway through the season. UCLA also got setup pitcher Kyle Mora back from his injury last week. The Bruins are still missing pithcers Jared Karros and Jake Saum (and former Saturday starter Nick Nastrini is just missing the strike zone), so the pitching depth is not the advantage that it has been for UCLA the last couple of seasons. With the return of JT Schwartz and Matt McLain, the Bruin lineup is as close to full strength as they've been all season.
The winner of the Lubbock regional will play the Stanford regional winner in the Super Regional next week. The Bruins have already played 3 of the teams in that regional (Stanford, UCI, and Nevada). So, if UCLA advances to the next round, it likely won't present any of the surprise matchup issues that we've seen in other years.
The UCLA-UNC game won't be a national broadcast, so you'll have to catch it on ESPN3 streaming. Whether this conflicts with the UCLA softball team depends on whether they win their opening game, which would put them into a Friday night matchup against the Alabama-Arizona winner at 6:30pm PT (TV ESPNU). |
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Woochifer
Joined: 12/15/11 Posts: 9,123
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Posted Wed, Jun 02 8:02 am
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In response to Spring Sports: It's now all about the diamonds (Woochifer)
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Here's the official release, with the WCWS schedule. UCLA plays #10 Florida State in the 4th and last game of the day. It has a scheduled start time of 6:30pm PT, but if the earlier games go long, then that could push things back.
https://uclabruins.com/news/2021/6/1/softball-no-2-bruins-open-wcws-thursday-against-no-10-florida-state.aspx
The UCLA-FSU winner will advance to play the winner of #3 Alabama vs #11 Arizona on Friday night at 6:30pm PT. In that scenario, I would much rather see the Bruins play Arizona, because Bama ace Montana Fouts is the best pitcher in the WCWS not named Rachel Garcia. She almost single-handedly carried the Tide to the championship series in 2019, beating Oklahoma in the elimination game before losing a pitcher's duel in extra innings in the if-necessary game.
A loss in the opening game is usually the kiss of death, because teams will have to come back and play elimination doubleheaders on Saturday and Sunday after a day off on Friday. The 2003 Bruins remain the only team to have ever won the WCWS after getting dropped into the elimination bracket on opening day. |
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Woochifer
Joined: 12/15/11 Posts: 9,123
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Posted Sat, Jun 05 9:05 am
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In response to Spring Sports: It's now all about the diamonds (Woochifer)
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The Bruins got pushed to the brink last night against Bama and their ace Montana Fouts. Rachel Garcia did not have a great outing against a heavy hitting Tide lineup, while the Bruins were completely shut down as Fouts tossed a perfect game. The loss now flips UCLA to the same side of the bracket as #1 Oklahoma.
The Bruins and Sooners were destined all season to meet in the WCWS. That's now likely to happen earlier than most pundits expected, as both teams play elimination games today. The Sooners though first have to play Georgia in an elimination game this morning. The Bulldogs got a huge break from the selection committee by hosting a regional as an unseeded team. They also handed OU one of their two regular season losses. The winner of that game will have a 3-hour break and then play UCLA.
Whoever emerges out of today's action will have to beat James Madison and their ace Odicci Alexander twice tomorrow to advance to the championship series. |
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Woochifer
Joined: 12/15/11 Posts: 9,123
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Posted Sat, Jun 05 9:12 am
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In response to Spring Sports: It's now all about the diamonds (Woochifer)
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The Bruins dug themselves into a hole with a 5-4 opening round loss against North Carolina to open the Lubbock Regional. UCLA had numerous chances to tie the game, but couldn't break through. Jesse Bergin had a good outing, but left the game with the Bruins behind but still very close. Jason Chaidez allowed a 2-run HR in relief that put the Bruins in a 5-2 hole.
UCLA now plays an elimination game against Army today. The winner will survive and advance to play an elimination game on Sunday at noon PT against the loser of today's game between Texas Tech and UNC. If they advance, they will then have to quickly turnaround and play the remaining undefeated team in the first of potentially two games. The if-necessary game is scheduled for 1pm PT on Monday. All games on ESPN streaming. |
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Woochifer
Joined: 12/15/11 Posts: 9,123
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Posted Sat, Jun 05 3:52 pm
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In response to Spring Sports: It's now all about the diamonds (Woochifer)
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The baseball team had an early 9-3 lead over Army, but had to fight it out as Army got into the Bruin bullpen and scored 3 runs to narrow the lead to 9-6. UCLA got some insurance runs, and Kyle Mora and Adrian Chaidez combined for 4+ shutout innings to take the 13-6 win. At this point, the bullpen is both thin and taxed. Whoever starts tomorrow's first game will need to have a quality outing, because at this point, the bullpen is not going to hold a narrow lead or keep the Bruins close in any kind of tight game.
The Bruins play an elimination game at noon PT on Sunday against the Carolina-Texas Tech loser. Then, if they win they have to play the UNC-TT winner. And if the Bruins win the 2nd game, they have to win yet another game on Monday to advance.
Softball is in a lightning delay. The official start time was pushed back from 4pm PT to 5pm PT. Yet, another example of why I hate permanent NCAA championship sites, especially ones in turbulent weather regions. |
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