Nevada losses in NCAA Regional championship
Sunday, May. 18, 2008 @ 8:59 pm
The Wolf Pack’s season ended Sunday after No. 2 UCLA earned another close victory, beating Nevada 4-3 in the NCAA Regional championship in Los Angeles.
Nevada also lost to UCLA on Saturday (6-4) in nine innings, but beat Purdue (2-1) on Saturday night to advance to Sunday’s championship game. The Wolf Pack needed to beat UCLA twice on Sunday if it was to win the double-elimination tournament.
The Wolf Pack lost to UCLA 10-1 in the first game of the 2008 season, but played much better against the Bruins this weekend.
Richelle Villescas led Nevada from the pitcher’s circle with three appearances on the weekend, including the majority of innings pitched against UCLA. She made three-relief appearances this weekend and pitched 12.2 innings, allowing four earned runs.
Villescas relieved Jordan McPherson in the third inning on Sunday and threw 3.2 innings, allowing one run and five hits.
Villescas also pitched seven innings against UCLA on Saturday.
Brittany Puzey supplied Nevada with the bulk of its offense on Sunday with a two-run double to the left field gap in the third inning, giving Nevada a 2-1 lead. UCLA rallied in the bottom half of the inning with two runs scored, but the Wolf Pack answered and tied the game at 3-3 in the fifth inning when Noelle Micka brought home Kim Silagyi with a single.
UCLA slammed the door on Nevada in the sixth inning, though, when UCLA right fielder Samantha Camuso hit a solo home run to left field.
Anjelica Seldon threw a complete game and got the win for the Bruins. She came into the tournament with a 25-3 record and a 0.80 earned run average, but she struggled against Nevada. Seldon allowed seven earned runs in 8.1 innings pitched against the Wolf Pack this weekend.
The loss ended the collegiate careers of four Wolf Pack seniors: McPherson, Villescas, Vanessa Briones and Tyler Schafer.
The Wolf Pack finished its season with a 44-18 record, breaking the school record for wins by six games (38-28 in 2004).
The Western Athletic Conference sent four teams to the Softball Championships, but all four were knocked out in this weekend’s regional tournaments.
Fresno State lost to California 7-6 in its home tournament. Hawaii was mercy ruled 8-0 in five innings against Arizona State in the Arizona regional, while Louisiana Tech lost 6-0 to Texas A&M in the regional at College Station, Texas. All WAC losses came Sunday.
UCLA will look to add to its 10 NCAA softball championships as it advances to next week’s Super Regional.
This entry was posted
on Sunday, May 18th, 2008 at 8:59 pm and is filed under Sports.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Print this post
Email this post
© 2008 The Nevada Sagebrush
May 18th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
Thanks for a great season. I never thought as a college student I would spend my time watching softball. You were great!!
June 18th, 2008 at 10:35 am
I never attended a game this season but I know you girls worked very hard to get where you did. You’re AMAZING representatives for our university and you made a great statement about what our university is capable of. I will absolutely make a few games this coming season and bring as many people as I can! Good luck next season!