March 11, 2012

Box Score
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LAKEWOOD, Calif. - Sophomore Talee Snow and freshman Ally Carda each had two hits and an RBI, freshman Stephany LaRosa drove in a pair and Carda and sophomore Jessica Hall combined on a three-hitter in the circle, as the 17th-ranked Bruins defeated Pittsburgh 5-3 in their first game on Sunday at the Long Beach State Invitational at Mayfair Park.

The Bruins improve to 19-6 with the win, while the Panthers fall to 11-6.

Carda moved to 8-2 on the season, striking out two and allowing three runs (two earned) and three hits in five innings. She retired the side in order in the third. Hall tossed a pair of scoreless innings in relief for her second save, fanning two and giving up one walk.

The Bruins scored five times in the bottom of the second. Senior Samantha Camuso led off with a single to left and moved to second on a sacrifice by senior Dani Yudin. After sophomore Kellie Fox reached on an error by shortstop Carissa Throckmorton, Carda singled to left, as Camuso scored and Fox and Carda each moved up a base on the throw home. Snow then tapped a ball to third and Kelly Hmiel came home with it, but Fox just got her hand on the plate before the tag to score the Bruins' second run. Snow proceeded to steal second, and when catcher Holly Stevens tried to throw down, the ball slipped out of her hand towards the third-base dugout, allowing Carda to come home to make it 3-0. Senior Katie Schroeder followed with a walk, and one out later, LaRosa went the opposite way and dropped a ball on the right-field line to bring in Snow and Schroeder to make it 5-0.

Pittsburgh scored an unearned run in the top of the fourth. Throckmorton recorded the Panthers' first hit on a double to right-center to open the inning and moved to third one out later on an error by Fox at short. Yvette Bravo then reached on another fielding error by Fox, allowing Throckmorton to score Pitt's first run.

The Panthers added two more in the fifth. Maggie Sevilla led off with a single to left, and one out later, Stevens was hit by a pitch. Following the second out of the inning, both runners moved up on a wild pitch and then scored on a single up the middle by Savannah King to make it 5-3.

The Bruins close out the weekend at 1:30 p.m. against Utah State. Gametracker will be available at UCLABruins.com, as well as live updates at twitter.com/uclasoftball.