UCLA won the first possible NCAA Gainesville Regional clinching game in walk-off fashion in the bottom of the 7th over Florida.
The Gators went into the final inning up 2-1, but the Bruins came out swinging on freshman Hannah Rogers notching five of their nine hits in the frame.
Junior Andrea Harrison’s single to center drove in third baseman GiOnna DiSalvatore to tie the game at 2 with one out in the inning.
After B.B. Bates popped out to left for the second out, Kellie Fox and Samantha Camuso both hit singles to left field to load the bases alongside Harrison.
Amy Crawford then hit the first pitch she saw to right-center to win the game for the Bruins.
The Gators’ two runs came from a Tiffany DeFelice sacrifice fly in the top of the sixth inning. The sac fly scored Lauren Heil and Cheyenne Coyle scored after DiSalvatore could not cleanly field the relay throw from Bates in left field. Coyle was tagging from second on the play.
Senior Stephanie Brombacher gave up UCLA’s first run in the bottom of the fifth and was pulled in the sixth after allowing two runners on with no outs. The Gators’ ace walked and struck out three with 79 pitches.
The Gators will play UCLA at 4:00 to decide who moves on to the Super Regional against Oregon, and who finishes their 2011 campaign.
Gator Country reporter Safid Deen can be reached at Safid@GatorCountry.com. You can also follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/SafidDeenGC.