OKLAHOMA CITY — Jessica Clements had been here before.
In April, against Oregon pitcher Elise Sokolsky, when the UCLA center fielder hit a home run in the first game of a three-game series in Eugene.
Clements found herself in a similar position as Thursday night turned into Friday morning at the Women’s College World Series. Only this time, the Bruins were looking to break a 2-2 tie in their final at-bat and move a step closer to a 13th national championship.
“Yeah, this is every girl’s dream,” Clements said after hitting a walk-off, two-run homer off Sokolsky in the seventh inning to send ninth-seeded UCLA to the winner’s bracket at Devon Park with a 4-2 win.
“This is my dream for as long as I could remember. Super blessed to be here.”
Catcher Alexis Ramirez also hit a two-run homer in support of Bruins’ starter Kaitlyn Terry, who pitched a four-hitter and gave up one earned run. UCLA (55-11) will play No. 12 seed Texas Tech on Saturday at 4 p.m. (PDT) for a spot in the semifinals. Oregon (53-9) will face unseeded Mississippi in Friday’s elimination game.
“Yeah, we just knew it would be a great game,” UCLA coach Kelly Inouye-Perez said. “They’re a great competitor, a great team. But I love the way my team fought tonight. Things happen out of our control that can actually frustrate you and get you out of your game, and one thing I talked about to the team … is eliminate the noise. Things are going to get crazy, eliminate the noise. Figure out how to play the game one pitch at a time.”
The Ducks tied the game 2-2 in the seventh on a call at home plate that was overturned.
Oregon’s Paige Sinicki doubled inside the third-base line to lead off the seventh, but the ruling was challenged by UCLA. The call was upheld, but the next batter, Dezianna Patmon, bunted Sinicki to third with one out. Emma Cox followed with a ground ball to third baseman Jordan Woolery, who tried to throw Sinicki out at home. The throw to Ramirez was on time and Sinicki was ruled out at home for the second out.
Oregon challenged the call, and it was overturned after a video review showed obstruction by Ramirez.
“Prior to having possession of the ball, the catcher’s left foot was blocking a portion of the leading edge, so therefore, we have obstruction,” Cody Little, director of video review, said in a statement.
Oregon led 1-0 in the fourth inning when Ramirez hit a two-out pitch from starter Lyndsey Grein over the left-field wall to give UCLA a 2-1 lead. It was the first runs the Bruins had scored against Grein in four games this season. The Ducks took two of three from UCLA in April.
After Woolery singled and Megan Grant walked to open the sixth, Grein was pulled in favor of Sokolsky, who retired the next two batters.
“I loved our fight throughout the entire game,” Oregon coach Melyssa Lombardi said. “It was a dogfight. I thought Lyndsey did a great job on the mound. Our defense was great. It was a total pitcher’s duel, and I just look at two swings that were the difference-maker.
“But I’m just proud of these guys, how they came back, tied the game up and gave us a chance to win the ball game.”
Lightning and rain resulted in a 75-minute delay, and two brief power outages lasting less than a minute each, turned Devon Park dark in the first inning.
Oregon scored first against Terry in the third inning. Kaylynn Jones singled, moved to second on a bunt by Katie Flannery, took third on a ground out by Kai Luschar and scored on a single by Kedre Luschar.
The Bruins nearly answered in their half of the inning when Savannah Pola drove a pitch from Grein 220 feet to the base of the center-field wall that was hauled in by Kedre Luschar to end the inning.
Clements, the graduate transfer from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, used the first at-bat against Sokolsky to her advantage.
UCLA’s Jessica Clements hits a walk-off home run against Oregon at the Women’s College World Series.
(Ross Turteltaub / UCLA Athletics)
“I was just trying to take it one step at a time, one breath at a time, one pitch at a time,” she said. “I had a good first hack. And it started also with a base runner getting on, and I was quite honestly looking middle, looking for a good pitch that I want to drive, and just going for a base hit to keep the rally going, not trying to do too much.
“And I got the payoff from it. I’m so blessed to be here and have that opportunity to have that at-bat, and that started with getting a base runner on. And, yeah, I feel on top of the world. That was awesome.”
