Arizona Sweeps No. 1 UCLA

It took only 48 hours for UCLA’s season-long stranglehold on the No. 1 ranking in college softball to slip from its grasp.

Second-ranked Arizona won both Pacific 10 Conference games against the Bruins at Easton Stadium. Lovieanne Jung’s seventh-inning grand slam broke open a close game and Alicia Hollowell pitched a five-hitter in a 5-1 victory Sunday.

Arizona (37-3, 6-0) should overtake UCLA (32-4, 4-2) in the next national poll Tuesday. Jung’s 20th homer, against losing pitcher Keira Goerl, was the exclamation point, but pitching and defense were the story for the Wildcats.

Hollowell threw a one-hitter in Saturday’s 3-0 win.

“No. 1 doesn’t mean a thing right now,” Arizona Coach Mike Candrea said. “But it was a big step in the right direction for our team.”

Goerl struck out 12 despite pitching for the third day in a row. Arizona, however, grabbed a 1-0 lead on a perfectly executed second-and-home double steal by Shelly Schultz and Wendy Allen.

The Bruins got their only run on a seventh-inning homer by shortstop Natasha Watley.

“I’m disgusted,” UCLA Coach Sue Enquist said. “This team needs to have a gut check.”

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Second-ranked Cal State Fullerton (27-7) used brilliant pitching to post a three-game baseball sweep over visiting Pacific to open Big West Conference play. Freshman Ricky Romero threw a three-hit shutout and struck out 14 in a 7-0 victory Saturday, and Dustin Miller took a shutout into the ninth inning in a 10-1 win Friday. On Sunday, Titan closer Chad Cordero struck out six in two innings to nail down a 4-2 victory.

Long Beach State’s Jered Weaver struck out a career-high 13 and improved to 7-2 with a two-hit shutout in Saturday’s 1-0 victory over Cal State Northridge. The eighth-ranked 49ers (20-11, 2-1) took two of three against the Matadors (7-30, 1-2).

James Cooper drove in a career-high six runs, including two in the bottom of the ninth to give Loyola Marymount (21-12, 8-4) a 12-11 win Sunday over St. Mary’s to finish a three-game West Coast Conference sweep. Greg Ramirez threw his first collegiate shutout for Pepperdine (19-14, 9-3) in a 6-0 win Friday, leading the Waves to a sweep at San Diego.

UC Irvine (13-20, 2-1) won two of three to open conference play at UC Santa Barbara and UCLA (17-18, 3-3) lost two of three at home to California.

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Top-ranked USC fell to second-ranked Stanford, 5-2, in the Pac-10 women’s tennis match Friday at USC. After losing for the first time in two months, the Trojans (18-2) won the final four singles matches Saturday in a 4-3 win over Cal.