It took six years, but the emotions finally overwhelmed Rachel Garcia.
The pitcher known for her stoic demeanor broke down in tears after leaving the field for the last time as a UCLA player Saturday night in the sixth inning of a 10-3 loss to No. 1 Oklahoma in the Women’s College World Series. After giving up her seventh run, Garcia cried with coach Kelly Inouye-Perez in the dugout as her illustrious college career ended.
After a 2-hour 17-minute weather delay, Garcia drove in No. 2 UCLA’s only runs but couldn’t hold down the potent Sooners offense after her third start in as many days, giving up nine hits, eight runs (six earned) and three walks. She struck out seven.
The matchup between No. 1 and No. 2 was penciled in for Monday’s championship series, but a historic upset by James Madison and a perfect game from Alabama’s Montana Fouts forced a change of plans. Instead of meeting for the title, the top teams met Saturday night with just survival at stake.
Highlights from Oklahoma’s win over UCLA in the Women’s College World Series on Saturday.
Along with being a rematch of the 2019 final that UCLA won, the titanic clash showcased opposing styles. The Sooners (52-3) boast one of the most explosive offenses in NCAA history. The Bruins entered with an Olympian leading their pitching staff, which entered the tournament with the nation’s second-best earned-run average.
A pitcher starred in the game, but it wasn’t Garcia.
Oklahoma’s Giselle Juarez, who pitched 5-1/3 scoreless innings of Oklahoma’s six-inning 8-0 win over Georgia on Saturday morning, held the Bruins scoreless after she entered the game with a three-run deficit after a three-run home run by Garcia in the third inning.
Juarez enacted her revenge after losing to the Bruins in the 2019 championship series by holding UCLA to three hits in five innings with one walk and four strikeouts.
After the Bruins were held without a baserunner against Alabama on Friday, Inouye-Perez deadpanned that the biggest adjustment the Bruins needed to make was to hit the ball. They did that with nine hits.
But they also left nine runners on base, including three in the fifth inning when Bubba Nickles popped out to second.
Nickles, who was making her first significant appearances since March 21 after an injured wrist, was hitless in nine at-bats in Oklahoma City. The Team USA utility player’s return to UCLA after redshirting last year was one of reasons why many had the Bruins as favorites to win the NCAA title this season.
UCLA has five NFCA All-Americans and two Olympians and brought back the entire roster from the 2020 team that finished the pandemic-shortened season ranked first. Winning another national championship seemed like a foregone conclusion.
Then it unraveled.
A pre-WCWS hand injury to Megan Faraimo diminished UCLA’s elite pitching staff and left Garcia to fend for herself against hitters who had studied her copiously over her four-year career. UCLA’s defense made mental mistakes. Two errors in the fourth inning resulted in two unearned runs for Oklahoma, which took its first lead of the game in the inning and continued to score.
After the Sooners scored two more with one out in the sixth to extend the lead to four runs and chase Garcia from the circle, the Oklahoma crowd behind the team’s dugout chanted, “We aren’t done yet.”
The Sooners scored three more runs.
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