Some bent over to watch Perez step on home plate while others leaped giddily a few feet away. Everyone then closed in on Perez in a joyous crush of bouncing bodies.
“Being a senior, I’m not going down looking, I’m not going down without a bang,” Perez said. “I was going for it.”
UCLA starter Rachel Garcia pitched all seven innings, throwing 146 pitches, on a night the game-time temperature of 86 degrees felt like 93 because of the 65% humidity.
It was largely a command performance in which Garcia (28-3) allowed four runs and four hits while striking out 15, including four during one inning in which a batter reached base on a passed ball.