Sporadic-flying softballs were all over the north-end of UCLA campus on Friday afternoon. Unfortunately for Long Beach State, all the big flies were on the wrong side of the foul pole.  ‘Niner hitters appeared locked-on to UCLA junior ace Megan Langenfeld, but only managed to get hits in two different innings of yesterdays 4-2 loss to the Bruins.

Brooke Turner was in the circle for the Beach and gave up three earned runs on six hits and walked one. But the story of the afternoon was the never-tiring arm of Langenfeld who threw 158 pitches in the complete game effort, 125 of those pitches were strikes and a good portion of those strikes were foul balls off ‘Niner bats.

Juniors Ashley Weber and Ashley Levine had the most success against Langenfeld. Levine was 2-for-3 and Weber was 2-for4 with an RBI.

With the win, the Bruins avenged a 2-1 regular-season loss to Turner and the 49ers by dropping the Beach into the losers bracket of the two-loss Regional tournament. And now it’s a role-reversal for the Beach who will have revenge on their mind when they face UNLV in a win-or-go-home scenario today at 3:30 pm at Easton Stadium. UNLV beat the 49ers 4-2 in the National Invitational Softball Tournament in San Jose.

“We did a great job offensively and Brooke came out and pitched well enough to win this ball game,” 49ers head coach Kim Sowder said in the postgame press conference. “Little things here and there made the difference in the ball game. But I’m proud of our team. We just got to come back tomorrow ready to go.”

A few of those “little things” coach mentioned occurred early when the Bruins took a 2-0 lead.

Andrea Harrison drew a full-count walk in the first, and moved to third on a passed ball and groundout before scoring on an error from usually-sure-handed first-baseman Jonae Perez. An inning later Julie Burney got the Bruins first hit of the game with a soft-liner to center, moved to second on another passed ball, and scored on a double to right off the bat of sophomore Monica Harrison.

Long Beach State would answer in the third with some aggressive at-bats. Junior transfer Jodi Nakawatase smacked the first pitch she saw from Langenfeld to center for the ‘Niners first hit of the game. Two batters later senior Danielle Linke roped a one-out double off the left field wall to put runners on second and third for Weber, who peppered the first-pitch back up the middle for the RBI. Momentum seemed to be swinging back the Beach’s way with the big bat of senior Jennifer Griffin coming up, but Langenfeld pitched her tough all game and got her to strike out on three pitches. Perez picked up Griffin and made up for the error by slapping a two-out single to left field tying the game at two. Levine followed with a single up the middle to load the bases for junior transfer Brandy Reyes. Reyes battled Langenfeld fouling off pitch, after pitch, after pitch before striking out looking and leaving the bases loaded.

Reyes had a couple great, lengthy at-bats, but she wasn’t the only one who made Langenfeld sweat for an out.  The ‘Niners had five different at-bats where their hitters saw 10 or more pitches. A lot of it was due to Langenfeld relentless pounding of the inner plate to right-handed hitters who had UCLA coaches wearing a fielding gloves in the dugout.

“Megan Langenfeld is a great pitcher and she battled,” coach Sowder said. “We certainly made her throw a lot of pitches. And if we see them again, we have to find a way to win those at-bats—though we did have a lot of great at-bats.”

On the other end, Langenfeld was involved in perhaps the most crucial at-bat of the game, only this time she was the one swinging the stick. After Schroeder reached on a perfect drag bunt single and moved to second on a sac bunt, Langenfeld battled with Turner. With a 2-2 count, Turner pulled the string with a change-up on the outer part of the plate that appeared to fool Langenfeld.  The Long Beach State faithful that made the trip up to Westwood cheered thinking it was strike-three, but it was instead called a ball. The following pitch ended up being hit in the left-center gap scoring the go-ahead (and eventual game winning) run. Turner would get the next two hitters out on harmless fly outs. 

The Bruins would add an insurance run in the sixth when Burney worked the count in her favor and turned on a Turner pitch for a line-drive home run to left.

“I think they were a little bit more aggressive today,” Turner said comparing the Bruins offensive attack from their previous meeting in March. “Last game I got them a lot on my drop-ball in. I think they were definitely working that in practice because they were out to hit that pitch today. I still worked it and tried to switch it up a little bit by using more change-ups and that’s what kept them off balance.”

Turner scattered six hits and did a great job of mixing in her pitches. While Langenfeld and Burney had two hits apiece, Turner owned the Bruins 4-5-6 hitters: Gionna DiSalvatore, Amanda Kamekona and Kaila Shull. They finished a combined 0-9 in the game. All three of those players plus Langenfeld and Schroeder were named to the NFCA All-West Region Team on Thursday, as was Griffin for the Beach.

“We know that Long Beach is always a tough opponent,” said Bruins head coach Kelly Inouye-Perez. “A lot of these girls have played head to head growing up and we always know it’s going to be a good game. Add post season to that and it makes it a little more exciting. But we always know through experience whatever it takes to get that first W is a big one because you want to stay in the winner’s bracket.”

UCLA will face Fresno State, who beat UNLV 2-1 early Friday, at 1 pm today, with the loser facing the winner of the Long Beach State-UNLV game. UNLV is coached by a very familiar face, 49er Hall of Famer, Pete Manarino. Manarino spent 23 years at the helm of the Long Beach State program.
 
(Due to technical difficulties, we were unable to produce a video highlight for the game.  We will do our best to get it up on the site ASAP.)