UCLA eliminates Florida at WCWS, faces Oklahoma on Monday

Holly Azevedo’s two-strike shutout on Sunday secured UCLA’s location in the nationwide semifinal with an 8-, 6-inning victory towards No. 14 Florida.

The redshirt senior gave up just one stroll and struck out two in her initially job Planet Collection start as the No. 5-seeded Bruins (50-9) advanced to facial area prime-rated Oklahoma on Monday at 9 a.m. PDT at Usa Softball Hall of Fame Stadium.

The Bruins should knock off the Sooners two times Monday to punch their ticket to the championship series, which begins Wednesday.

UCLA dropped to Oklahoma 4-1 on Feb. 12 during the 1st weekend of the time, 1 of just eight video games this season the dominant Sooners have scored less than five runs. Azevedo begun the sport and gave up one particular run in 1 2/3 innings. Lauren Shaw arrived on in aid, supplying up two runs. Monday’s matchup probable will feature Megan Faraimo in the circle. The redshirt junior who started off UCLA’s initially two Entire world Sequence game titles went 3 1/3 innings versus the Sooners in February with three hits and just one unearned operate with five strikeouts.

The early-year matchup came before the Sooners (56-2) asserted themselves as maybe the ideal college or university softball workforce in history. They’ve received a whopping 39 of their 58 online games by run rule and direct the nation in most considerable offensive categories, together with batting typical (.370), dwelling runs for every recreation (2.45) and scoring (9.22 operates for each sport).

What separates this year’s No. 1-rated team from even past year’s nationwide championship is its pitching. The Sooners direct the nation with a .86 Period. With 3 of the prime 5 pitchers in the country, based mostly on Era, Oklahoma is on rate to have the most affordable Era for a team because Texas’ .81 in 2006.

Nevertheless the Bruins have their have prime-notch employees.

Faraimo and Azevedo, UCLA’s to start with pair of 20-get pitchers given that 2002, are the 1st distinctive UCLA pitchers to every single gain a match in the same Globe Series given that Megan Langenfeld and Aleah Macon in 2010. UCLA gained the nationwide championship that period.

Azevedo rebounded from her shaky performance in the opener, through which she gave up a few runs and five hits in reduction in opposition to Texas. She also acquired plenty of offensive assistance Sunday, led by two RBIs just about every from shortstop Briana Perez, heart fielder Maya Brady and freshman Savannah Pola. Pola’s two-run single in the bottom of the sixth inning ended the sport early as the Bruins went forward by eight runs, 4 of which arrived in the sixth.

UCLA’s eight runs were the most scored by the Bruins in the World Sequence due to the fact they exploded for 16 from Oklahoma in 2019. The following working day, UCLA claimed the NCAA title.