UCLA softball routs Grand Canyon, advances to NCAA Super Regionals (2024)

LOS ANGELES — When UCLA head coach Kelly Inouye-Perez witnessed Jadelyn Allchin’s first swings as a Bruin, she was taken aback.

“Whoa, that little thing?” she said. “She’s got such whip and such power.”

Allchin transferred to UCLA from Washington in August 2023, lured to Westwood to join forces with youth softball teammates Janelle Meoño, Sharlize Palacios and Maya Brady. The latter assured her head coach that Allchin’s force wasn’t fools gold.

If Inouye-Perez waited, Brady said earlier this season, she’d see Allchin unleash one.

On Sunday, she did just that in the top of the third inning.

“It cleared the batting cage and went onto sunset,” Inouye-Perez said about Allchin’s solo home run.

The Bruins built a three-run advantage before Grand Canyon (50-13) recorded its first out. Allchin’s shot extended that lead. UCLA (40-10) jumped on the Antelopes in the top of the first inning, extending their lead enough to end the game after the fifth inning via the run-rule.

With UCLA’s 9-1 victory over Grand Canyon, the Bruins advanced to the NCAA Super Regionals for the 13th time under Inouye-Perez.

UCLA won all three of its games in the Los Angeles Regional, rewriting the downfall in 2023 when consecutive losses ended the Bruins season. The first of those two defeats came to the Antelopes, who, the Bruins beat twice over three days this time around.

They needed only 10 total innings to do so, conceding just one run across those frames.

Taylor Tinsley (16-8) started Sunday’s game after lasting just 1⅓ inning Saturday. She didn’t linger on past mistakes, instead locking in and going the distance. Tinsley struck out six Antelopes across five innings. Her changeup left Grand Canyon head coach Shannon Hays impressed. She allowed two hits, one of which was a Tinley Lucas home run that accounted for the Antelopes’ only run.

UCLA offered support before Tinsley even stepped on the mound.

“We said we wanted to be prepared for one shot in that first inning,” Inouye-Perez said. “We set the tone right there. Being visitors, the goal today was to throw the first punch.”

With no outs in the bottom of the first, Palacios drove in Brady and Allchin with a three-run home run. The redshirt senior blasted two bombs over the right-field wall during Friday’s game against the Antelopes, but Virginia Tech’s pitching held her hitless Saturday, forcing three weak pop-ups.

Palacios found her swing again, sending the ball over the fence in left field. She’s hit nine home runs over the past 14 games.

“Shar’s been a quarterback behind the plate,” Inouye-Perez said, praising her command of the defense.

Palacios stabilized Tinsley after the pitcher walked Katelyn Dunckel, the second batter she faced.

“There was a mound issue and she just slipped a bit,” Palacios said. “We just talked about it and she was like, ‘I’ll find my footing.’ She told me that. And that’s just the maturity that she and K.T. (Kaitlyn Terry) are showing throughout the season.”

On Saturday, Tinsley’s short-lived, rocky stint on the hill offered her the chance to rest and regain her composure. Only a few blemishes scuffed her scorecard, and when they did, UCLA’s defense had her back.

With the bases loaded in the bottom of the fourth, Bruins third baseman Thessa Malau’ulu dove to field a ground ball and spun around to tag her own base.

“That reaction play was unreal,” Inouye-Perez said. “It was game-changing. They easily could have cracked the door there.”

That play protected the run-rule and gave Tinsley the opportunity to down the Antelopes in order in the fifth, her pitching complementing UCLA’s offense, which scored 25 runs over three games.

Tinsley’s strikeout of Kaitlyn Brannstrom might have ended the afternoon, but it was the Bruins’ offense that got them there.

They extended their lead to five in the top of the third inning when Alexis Ramirez replaced Antelopes’ starter Meghan Golden, who earned the loss Sunday. Allchin belted Ramirez’s third pitch over the center-field wall. Savannah Pola and Jordan Woolery, the same duo that produced the winning and tying runs Saturday, connected for another.

UCLA loaded the bases in the top of the fourth, and brought each runner home without recording a hit. Meoño scored on a wild pitch. Brady came home on aground out by Palacios and Allchin crossed the plate for a team-high third time on Woolery’s roller.

The group that combined for seven of UCLA’s nine runs was also responsible for convincing Allchin to join the Bruins. “The Bat Busters,” they call themselves after the Orange County-based club softball team that Meoño, Brady, Palacios and Allchin played for as teenagers.

Allchin, though, said another reason she chose UCLA was to be closer to her family. Her uncles and aunts, who weren’t able to watch her for four years at Washington, now cheer her on.

They shout her nickname: “Let’s go, Jax!” Or “Let’s go, Sherlock!” – a reference to her newly adopted cat, which she named Sherlock Holmes.

“It’s awesome being together again,” Allchin said.

A stadium staffer retrieved her home run ball and handed it to her family. So, maybe, it wasn’t lost on Sunset Boulevard like Inouye-Perez suggested.

Even if it had been, Allchin and the Bruins will have more chances to smash home runs over Easton Stadium’s wall as they’ll host an NCAA Super Regional next weekend.