Bulldogs battle, but out of NCAA Tournament after two close losses to Power 5 opponents
Fresno State battled through some punches on Saturday, to the gut, to the chin and everywhere in between. But after 15 innings of softball spread out over more than nine hours, the Bulldogs were eliminated from the NCAA Tournament Los Angeles Regional with a 5-4 loss to No. 2 and tournament host UCLA in eight innings and then a 6-3 loss to No. 24 Minnesota.
The Bulldogs loaded the bases in the bottom of the seventh with two outs against Minnesota, but Mountain West Conference player of the year Keahilele Mattson was retired on a liner up the middle that glanced off pitcher Amber Fiser and to shortstop Carlie Brant, who threw to first for the final out.
“She today and probably this entire weekend is who we want up in that situation, bottom line, and I think she was a few inches away from scoring two runs for us,” interim coach Jodie Cox said.
“She hit the crap out of the ball. Mattson did what Mattson has been doing and did the entire season – give us a chance every single at-bat.”
Fresno State (37-12) was that close all day and behind ace Hailey Dolcini had a 1-0 lead on UCLA after six innings, just three outs away from playing for the regional title and advancing in its 34th NCAA Tournament appearance and its first since the 2017 season.
Dolcini, who had shut out Minnesota on two hits in the opening game of the regional and continually worked her way out of trouble through the first six innings against the Bruins, allowed a leadoff single to Aaliyah Jordan who advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt.
Dolcini had powered her way through trouble before, getting out of the first inning with two strikeouts when UCLA had the bases loaded; the second with another strikeout with runners at first and second; the fourth with a foul popup with runners at second and third; and the sixth with a foul popup with a runner at second.
UCLA had OIympian Rachel Garcia coming to the plate, not only one of the top pitchers in the nation (0.82 ERA), but also a .364 hitter with 12 home runs and 32 RBI. Garcia had walked her first two plate appearances and worked the count full before lining a pitch up and on the outside half of the plate to right field, driving in Jordan.
The Bulldogs gave up four more runs in the top of the eighth before scoring three times in the bottom of the inning and had the tying and winning runs in scoring position before Garcia ended it with a strikeout.
Against Minnesota, Fresno State was down 2-1 after one inning and was tied at 3 after three. But the Bulldogs mustered only one hit over the next three innings against Golden Gophers starter Autumn Pease and missed their last chance in a season that included a late start due to COVID-19 protocols in Fresno County, losing three starters to injury and coach Linda Garza to a leave of absence in April.
“This team is scary,” an emotional Cox said, after the second of two losses on Saturday. “We had UCLA on the ropes. We had a very, very good UCLA team on the ropes and we beat a higher seed (Friday).
“I think we’re just going to keep rolling and this team has a huge, bright future ahead of them.”
This story was originally published May 23, 2021 at 8:00 AM.