May 20, 2024 | Los Angeles, Sports, Valleys, Women

Bruins to host Super Regionals

Palacios homered three times off Grand Canyon pitching in the Regional. She leads the Pac-12 Conference with 18 this season.

Maya Brady PAC-12 Player of the Year is ready to lead UCLA in the Super Regionals against Georgia at Easton Field (Photo by Ross Turteltaub-UCLA Athletics)

Earl Heath

Contributing Sports Writer

UCLA Softball had a good weekend claiming the NCAA tournament’s Los Angeles Region. The No. 6 seeded BRUINS advanced to the NCAA Super Regional after a 9-1 five-inning victory over Grand Canyon.

The Bruins (40-10) jumped out to a 3-0 lead after Maya Brady was hit by the first pitch of the game. Jaydelyn Allchin followed with a singled

That’s when Sharlize Palacios then went “UPTOWN” on the second pitch of her at-bat with a shot off the scoreboard.

“I’m repeating myself, but our goal is to be the best at the end,” said UCLA Head Softball coach Kelly Inouye-Perez. “Today was just absolute execution. We said we wanted to be prepared for one shot in that first inning, and that set the tone right there. I’m just going to say I’m proud of my Bruins, I’m proud of Taylor (Tinsley), I’m proud of Kaitlyn Terry for getting us to this point. Sharlize has been the quarterback. She’s behind the plate, but most importantly, for the seniors, we get to extend our season and we get to play another weekend. I’m proud that we get to do that in our house.”

Palacios homered three times off Grand Canyon pitching in the Regional. She leads the Pac-12 Conference with 18 this season.

“We were just focusing on coming out, and there was kind of a killer mentality,” Palacios said. “We had to go out, make a statement, and do it for the team. That started with Maya took the dose (hit by pitch, but she took it like a dog. And then Jadelyn came up with a bunt, and we just showed that we were ready to play.”

In the third inning, Allchin welcomed GCU reliever Hailey Hudson to the game by crushing a leadoff home run. Allchin finished the game 3-for-3 with a career-high-tying three runs scored. Savanah Pola added an RBI double to increase UCLA’s lead to 5-0.

The Lopes (50-13) got one run back on a Tinley Lucas solo home run in the bottom of the third, but the Bruins added three more runs in the top of the fourth after a wild pitch with the bases loaded and a pair of groundouts.

Brady hit an infield chopper in the top of the fifth put UCLA ahead 9-1 and set the Bruins up for an early ending to the game via run rule. Taylor Tinsley made quick work of The Lopes in the bottom of the fifth, to earn the victory. Brady the PAC12 Player of the Year showed her defensive side for the second out in the fifth, fielding a high chopper and making an on-the-run throw. Tinsley allowed just two hits and one run while striking out six in her outing, running her record to 16-8.

Bulldogs have Jaiden Fields (3)- OF, First Base who has batted 309 with 26 hits and 17 RBI’s. She’s also sister of NFL QB Justin Fields (Photo Courtesy: U of Georgia Athletics)

UCLA was dominant offensively in the Regional- scoring seven or more runs in each of its three victories and run-ruling Grand Canyon twice. Palacios totaled four RBI in the clinching game and nine in the tourney. The Redshirt Senior from Chula Vista now has homers in six of her last 12 games. Her performance tonight marked the 21st multi-homer game in UCLA softball postseason history.

The BRUINS totaled 10 hits, as five that went for extra bases, and chased out Grand Canyon’s first three pitchers. No Lopes pitcher lasted more than 1.2 of an innings.

ADD BRUINS: With her fifth inning single Brady joined the top ten in UCLA all-time hits. The Bruins will host No. 11 seed Georgia in the Super Regionals next week. This marks the 14th NCAA Super Regional appearance for the UCLA softball program since the NCAA Tournament was reformatted in 2005. The Bulldogs (43-17,12-12 SEC) earned it way after winning three straight games out of the elimination bracket to take the NCAA Athens Regional.

They are led by Dallis Goodnight an All SEC second teamer who started 43 games batted .349 scored 47 runs with 43 hits.

They defeated the BRUINS in February by a 7-2 score in a game played in Clearwater Florida. This will be the third all-time meeting between the Bulldogs and Bruins in the Super Regional. The two teams squared off in Supers in 2005. Georgia won game one, but UCLA won back-to-back one-run games to advance to OKC. The Bruins swept the Super Regional in LA in 2008. Georgia is 1-6 all-time against the Bruins in the postseason. The teams will square off Thursday and Friday at Easton Stadium 6:30 with a game three Saturday if necessary.