OKLAHOMA CITY — UCLA senior Megan Grant’s historic season fell short of her College Women’s World Series championship dreams, as the Bruins were eliminated Sunday night in an 8-7 extra-inning loss to Texas Tech.
Former UCLA hurler Kaitlyn Terry allowed two runs in five innings and drove in the go-ahead run in the ninth inning for Texas Tech. Terry and NiJaree Canady alternated pitching duties seven times for the Red Raiders, but it was Terry who was the star of the game against her former teammates. Her double in the ninth inning scored Taylor Pannell to make it 7-6 and she scored an insurance run on an error later in the inning.
UCLA rallied in the bottom of the ninth when Jordan Woolery, who earlier hit two home runs, drove in Rylee Slimp with a one-out single. Canady came back in to pitch and ended the game on a flyout and a strikeout.
Grant — who got hit in the left elbow by a Canady fastball in her first at-bat of the night — went 0 for 3 with a walk and a run scored in the final game of her great collegiate career. The 2022 graduate of Aragon High School set the NCAA Division I single-season home run record with 42 homers and the UCLA single-season and career home run records, finishing with 91 homers in four years as a Bruin.
Canady (27-6) was credited with the win because she finished the eighth inning.
Eleventh-seeded Texas Tech (59-8) advances to the national semifinals against Alabama on Monday. The Red Raiders will need two wins to advance to the championship series for the second consecutive season.
Recommended for you
UCLA trailed 6-3 in the bottom of the seventh inning but leadoff batter Ramsey Suarez ripped a pinch-hit home run off Terry to make it a two-run game. With two outs, Woolery, who finished with three hits and five RBIs, sent an 0-1 pitch from Canady deep to center field for a game-tying home run.
UCLA’s Taylor Tinsley (33-8), who pitched every inning in the Bruins’ three games, allowed eight runs, seven earned and threw 181 pitches.
UCLA’s record-setting season came to an end after scoring 672 runs and hitting 209 home runs. The eighth-seeded Bruins (53-10) also set records for most total bases and most RBIs.
The matchup was the first between two teams with more than 600 runs in a season.
The game was delayed for a few minutes before the bottom of the eighth when the automatic sprinklers came on in right field.
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO
personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who
make comments. Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd,
racist or sexually-oriented language. Don't threaten. Threats of harming another
person will not be tolerated. Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone
or anything. Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on
each comment to let us know of abusive posts. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Anyone violating these rules will be issued a
warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be
revoked.
Please purchase a Premium Subscription to continue reading.
To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account.
We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription.
A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means you’re helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much!
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.