May 19, 2002
COLUMBIA, S.C. –
Sunday was a day of setting records in Columbia, S.C. as the South Carolina Gamecocks recorded their first ever win over UCLA 2-1 in the 2002 NCAA Softball Regional Championships. With the win, South Carolina also recorded their program’s 1,000th win overall.
South Carolina’s Aleca Johnson recorded the win in the freshman’s first ever NCAA Tournament appearance. Johnson came into pitch for the Gamecocks in the fourth inning after UCLA’s Tairia Mims hit a hard line drive straight towards then Carolina pitcher Megan Matthews. The ball ricocheted off of Matthews arm, which send Matthews doubling over in pain. Mims would be thrown out at first, but Matthews would be unable to continue and would not return.
UCLA (53-7) had one run off of five hits and two errors. The host South Carolina Gamecocks (46-19) recorded two runs off of four hits and one error.
UCLA’s lone run of the game came in the top of the second as Bruins catcher Stacey Nuveman hit a solo homerun to deep centerfield off of Carolina pitcher Megan Matthews. UCLA would only be able to put a runner in scoring position one more time after that and would be unable to score.
In the bottom of the seventh inning with Carolina down 1-0, Adrianna Baggetta started off the inning with a double down the left field line. Nancy Crane would come into pinch run for Baggetta. Next up for USC would be Meghan Cornett, who would single, scoring Crane, then advance to second on the throw and finally advanced to third on an error by UCLA’s right fielder Stephanie Ramos. Tia Rogers struck out swinging, giving the Gamecocks one out. UCLA pitcher Amanda Freed then threw a wild pitch and Cornett would score and give the Gamecocks the win 2-1.
