Bruins Rally to Sweep Huskies in 5-4 Victory
SEATTLE – Delanie Wisz recorded a pair of RBI-base hits, including a solo home run to center field, to secure the No. 3 UCLA softball team's come-from-behind, 5-4 win and series sweep over No. 9 Washington at Husky Softball Stadium on Sunday night.
The victory marked the 700th in The Shelly Carlin UCLA Head Softball Coach Kelly Inouye-Perez's career.
The Bruins (28-3, 6-0 Pac-12) are now riding a 21-game winning streak and have swept the Huskies (20-10, 1-5 Pac-12) and Arizona Wildcats – the two teams picked to finish second and third, respectively, behind UCLA in the Pac-12 Coaches Preseason Poll – in back-to-back series.
Washington took its first lead of the series in the third inning with a home run by Madison Huskey to put the Huskies up 3-2. They threatened to tack on in their next ups in the fourth, loading the bases only for Megan Faraimo to strike her way out of her first of three jams of the night with runners in scoring position.
In total, the Huskies left 11 runners on base.
Wisz worked the second of her two walks of the game to leadoff the top of the fifth inning. Freshman Lauren Hatch, who was brought in to pinch run for Wisz, moved over to second on a Maya Brady groundout, and advanced to third and scored on two wild pitches by Washington pitcher Sarah Willis to tie the game.
That's our 𝐛𝐨𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐫 💥💥💥
📺: ESPNU
📱: https://t.co/zcKzGdDgId#GoBruins | @delanieewisz pic.twitter.com/enMpKeyVDd— UCLA Softball (@UCLASoftball) March 28, 2022
UCLA retook its lead in the sixth thanks to a stolen base by Lauryn Carter and a groundout by Thessa Malau'ulu which moved Carter over to third. A batter later, Briana Perez hit a soft ground ball to second base that was mishandled on the transfer and allowed Carter to score.
Faraimo induced a fly out in the bottom half of the sixth to strand the Huskies' tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position.
Wisz capped off her 2-for-2 night with a bomb to straight-away center field for her seventh of the year for a key insurance run. She has now reached base safely in 22 consecutive games and is boasting the Bruins' third-best batting average (.375).
Faraimo once again put any hopes of a Washington come back to sleep with a force out at third to end the game. She is now tied with the Pac-12 lead for wins with 13.
Perez also doubled off the very first pitch of the game to left center field and was scored two batters later by Wisz. Perez ranks first on the team with an .830 slugging percentage.
UCLA returns to Easton Stadium next week for a three-game series versus Oregon beginning Friday, April 1 at 7 p.m. PT. The three contests will be available for viewing on the Pac-12 Networks.