Tennessee overcomes controversial call, defeats UCLA to reach Women’s CWS semifinals

By Canadian Press on June 1, 2025.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Laura Mealer’s RBI single in the ninth inning gave Tennessee a 5-4 win over UCLA on Sunday that lifted the Volunteers into the Women’s College World Series semifinals and eliminated the Bruins.

The game nearly had a controversial finish.

UCLA’s Megan Grant hit a two-run blast with two outs in the top of the seventh inning that appeared to tie the score at 4-all. There was an umpire review that appeared to involve whether or not Grant touched home plate. After a nearly 15-minute delay, the home run ruling was upheld because it was determined on the field that the runs were scored, and the home plate umpire announced that the play was not reviewable. Had Grant been called out, the game would have ended with Tennessee winning 4-2.

Even after giving up the homer, Tennessee’s Karlyn Pickens recovered and went the distance for the win. The first-team National Fastpitch Coaches Association All-American gave up four earned runs on 11 hits and struck out seven. She threw 148 pitches.

Taylor Pannell’s two-run homer put Tennessee up 4-2 in the fifth to help set up the dramatic ending. She had three hits.

Tennessee (47-16) will play Texas on Monday in the semifinals and will have the beat the Longhorns twice to advance to the best-of-three championship series. Texas will need to win just once to reach the championship series for the third time in four years.

UCLA’s Alexis Ramirez and Sofia Mujica hit solo homers. The Bruins (55-13) were trying to become the first semifinalist from the Big Ten since Michigan in 2015.

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AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports

Cliff Brunt, The Associated Press