UCLA answered its worst inning of the season with one of its steadiest performances, beating South Carolina 7-2 on Saturday afternoon at Easton Stadium to move within one victory of hosting a Super Regional next weekend.
Taylor Tinsley, who had been shelled for a career-worst nine runs in one inning Friday night against California Baptist, threw a complete game against South Carolina. She allowed seven hits and two runs, both on solo home runs, while striking out six and walking one. UCLA improved to 49-8, and Tinsley moved to 29-6.
The turnaround mattered because it came only 24 hours after Tinsley’s roughest outing, in a postseason setting where one bad inning can drag a team into another game the next day. UCLA coach Kelly Inouye-Perez said the Bruins needed exactly that kind of response, saying that in the postseason one of the most important things is having a short-term memory, and that she could not be more proud of how Tinsley came out and played her game.
UCLA’s offense gave her breathing room early. Megan Grant hit her 39th home run of the season, a two-run shot in the second inning that extended her single-season NCAA record and pushed the Bruins ahead 6-1. Aleena Garcia and Bri Alejandre also homered for UCLA. South Carolina’s only charge came in the fourth inning, when it had a two-on, one-out threat, but UCLA escaped with an inning-ending double play.
The defensive play that ended that inning summed up the day. Jolyna Lamar caught a fly ball in center field with a runner on third and threw toward home, where Jordan Woolery fielded the throw and fired to third to double off the runner who had strayed too far from the base. In a tournament where every mistake gets magnified, UCLA took away South Carolina’s best chance to flip the game.
Tinsley said the response was rooted as much in confidence as in mechanics. She described the support around her as “a lot of words of affirmation,” and said the reset came from “just having a game plan that I will do this for my team today, I will do this for myself today.” She added that whenever she gets the ball, she is excited because the team is focused on having fun, and she has fun with it too.
That matters for UCLA because Tinsley has started every postseason game and has pitched more than half of the Bruins’ innings this season, a heavier load made more important by the departures of Kaitlyn Terry and Addisen Fisher after last season. The Bruins have had to lean on Tinsley at a time when depth is thinner than it was a year ago, and Saturday showed how much they still depend on her settling in quickly.
Kiki Rice was in attendance to support Grant and the rest of the Bruins, another sign of the attention surrounding a team that now has a direct path to next weekend’s hosting picture. UCLA’s job is not finished, but after a night that could have lingered, the Bruins put together the kind of response that keeps the bracket moving in their favor.
