The Cal softball team entered the weekend with the intention of playing three games against No. 14 UCLA (18-8) over a three-day span. The rain had different ideas, only allowing the Bears (11-11) to play their home opener Saturday, a nail-biter they eventually lost 3-2.
“I think we played fairly well, we played nine innings so I like that we never gave up,” said junior Annie Aldrete. “It was super fun to finally get to play at home, and it was a really good environment.”
Senior pitcher Nisa Ontiveros was on fire for the Bears in their home opener, finishing the day with a career-high 11 strikeouts after pitching nine full innings. In the end, however, the Bruins got their bat on the ball when they needed to and drove in runs.
The Bears were the first team to strike, when Aldrete hit a homerun with one person on base in the fourth inning to make the score 2-0.
“I tried to stick to my game plan, which was to stay up the middle and keep my hitting as concise as possible,” Aldrete said.
UCLA didn’t take long to strike back, as senior Mysha Sataraka scored a home run in the top of the fifth to make the score 2-1. The Bruins eventually evened the score in the seventh inning, when a sacrifice fly from freshman Paige Halstead brought in sophomore Kylee Perez to make the score 2-2.
And unfortunately for Cal, Sataraka only struck again in extra innings, hitting her second homerun of the day in the ninth inning to make the score 3-2. That was all the room Bruin’s redshirt junior pitcher Paige McDuffee needed, as she was able to put down the Bears in the ninth inning to secure the away victory for the Bruins.
Cal planned to play a doubleheader Monday after the rain prevented it from playing its regularly scheduled game Sunday, the second game of the series. But in the end they were forced to stop the first game of the doubleheader in the sixth inning, this time due to darkness as well as continual downpour.
“It was a little discomforting having to wait around for the rain to stop, your focus is off and you’re wondering when you’ll get a chance to play,” Aldrete said. “But you kind of have to keep your mind focused every single second and not get distracted.”
UCLA was leading the Bears 4-3 when game one of the planned doubleheader was stopped by the umpires, preventing Cal from having its turn to bat in the sixth inning. The Pac-12 will now need to decide if both remaining games should be played at a later time or declare a result.
Cal will need to put this frustrating weekend in the back-burner, as the Bears must now hit the road to play an away series against Oregon State. Game one of that planned three-game series against the Beavers will begin Thursday.
Alex Quintana covers softball. Contact him at aquintana@dailycal.org