COLUMBIA, S.C. — Kelly Inouye-Perez was thinking about one pitch.
Even with her team three outs from elimination, needing at least three runs to stay alive in Game 2 of the Columbia Super Regional, she was still just thinking about one pitch.
Superstar slugger Jordan Woolery found it, hitting a walk-off home run to give UCLA an improbable 5-4 victory that set up a winner-take-all Game 3 on Sunday at Beckham Field.
“You never want to put yourself in a position to have a game feel like it’s out of your reach,” Inouye-Perez said. “It’s not about three outs or the bottom of the seventh or what the score is. Give us one pitch and anything can happen. And I think that’s the brilliance of our sport. It’s not a timed sport, you have an opportunity if you have one pitch.”
Just getting to the point where one pitch could win the game seemed improbable for most of the day. South Carolina (44-16) took the lead in the first inning and never gave it up until Woolery’s swing, leading 4-1 heading to the bottom of the seventh with Jori Heard on the mound.
Pinch hitter Taylor Stephens worked a lead-off walk and came around to score on Kaitlyn Terry’s one-out triple. That line drive into the gap made it 4-2 and brought the tying run to the plate, but Heard followed it up by striking out Jessica Clements.
South Carolina was one out from its first trip to the Women’s College World Series since 1997, but Savannah Pola kept the game alive with an RBI single.
With Woolery coming to the plate in a one-run game, South Carolina made a pitching change. Sam Gress, who started the game and allowed one run in four innings, reentered the circle.
Woolery was 0 for 2 against Gress earlier in the game, but the pitching change was a blessing in disguise.
“I was just happy to have more time to take some breaths in between, honestly,” Woolery said. “I was happy to take a little timeout, catch my breath and get in the right head space. Both pitchers did a great job the last two days, so I have a lot of respect for both of them.”
One pitch later, she crushed her 23rd home run of the season, one with more importance than the first 22 combined. Down to its last breath, Woolery kept UCLA’s season alive.
“Coach always says the game comes back around,” Woolery said. “I’ve had a rough two days, so it was just trusting that was eventually going to come through. I just wanted to have my teammates’ backs today.”
Woolery’s heroics ended the game, but pitcher Taylor Tinsley made it possible. Tinsley threw a 137-pitch complete game with four runs allowed, but pitched out of a couple of key jams to keep the Bruins afloat. Tinsley stranded runners on the corners in the first inning, got out of a bases-loaded jam in the sixth inning and held the deficit at 4-1 with two runners on base in the seventh.
The sixth-inning jam did feature one big break with a South Carolina base running blunder. Second baseman Karley Shelton grounded out to her counterpart Pola with the bases loaded, but thought the inning was over after Pola fired home to cut down the lead runner. In reality, there were only two outs, but Shelton trotted off the field like the inning was over. Once she hit the dugout, she was automatically out.
It was far from a conventional double play, but it was exactly what UCLA needed to stay within three runs.
“Credit to Taylor Tinsley,” Inouye-Perez said. “She has been just a leader, she has been tough, she has had success, she has had disappointment. But she has prepared for this moment and was so locked in.”
Still, it would have been a clutch performance in a losing effort if not for one final rally. The type of miracle comeback that will earn a place in UCLA’s steeped softball lore if the Bruins can come back to win tomorrow.
“One thing that I told the team was we were going to have an opportunity to get the last punch,” Inouye-Perez said. “And we have a thing. We believe in Bruin magic. And great things can happen when you come together and play as a team.”
Four runs to save the season, three of them down to the final out. Magic might be the only explanation.
“The Bruin magic is literally just the belief that we will win this game,” she continued. “That’s something that has been a big part of the history of this part of this program. We’ve seen it, we have experience in it. But to see this team do it in this big moment is a big part of why you come to UCLA.”
Game 3 of the series is scheduled for Sunday, with the start time and broadcast information to be revealed later Saturday night.
