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UCLA 8, TEXAS A&M 2
The Texas A&M Aggies’ season came to a bitter end on Saturday, as UCLA pulled away late to seal an 8-2 win to advance along in the elimination bracket.
With the score 3-1 in the top of the seventh, the Bruins broke the dam and scored five runs in the stanza. Two doubles, a single and a two-run home run wound up being the damage in the end as the Aggies couldn’t quite keep their opponents’ bats quiet enough to rally in the bottom half.
A&M found themselves in a hole early as Kylee Perez kickstarted the UCLA offense with a solo home run in the first inning. Then, in the second, Delaney Spaulding hit a double that scored two runs to bring their lead to 3-0. A Riley Sartain home run in the fourth downsized the deficit to two runs, but Rachel Garcia and Selina Ta’amilo were just too good in the circle.
Garcia allowed the one earned run but only let up three hits in her six innings of work. She walked two, struck out two, and kept damage to a minimum. Ta’amilo was brought on in the seventh to finish the job, and finish it she did. While she let up a home run to Celena Massey, that proved to be the only damage done to her as she got all three outs in the seventh to send UCLA onward to face Washington later on Saturday night.
This is the end of the road for the Aggies after what was, all told, an extremely successful season in College Station.
OREGON 4, LSU 1
LSU’s season has ended at the hands of the Oregon Ducks, who defeated the Fighting Tigers 4-1 on Saturday night in OKC.
With their 4-1 win, the Ducks make it to the National Semifinals, where they’ll face the 10th-seeded Oklahoma Sooners to try and earn a trip to the final, where they could meet one of the Florida Gators or the archrival Washington Huskies.
LSU’s bats were held in check by Ducks pitcher Megan Kleist, as the Tigers were only able to muster up five hits in seven innings at the plate. Only one player - Shemiah Sanchez - racked up a multi-hit day at the plate, as the 3rd baseman went 2-3 at the dish.
Her efforts were unfortunately not enough to allow LSU’s season to continue on, as Kleist was nasty in the circle. She struck out nine and posted zero walks in her outing, with the lone damage being done by the aforementioned Sanchez - a solo homer in the second inning.
Oregon opened up the game with two runs in the first thanks to a home run by Gwen Svekis. Nikki Udria and Mia Camuso tacked on two additional runs in the third and fifth, as each picked up RBI singles to add much-needed insurance.