TUCSON, Ariz. -- No. 8 Arizona and second-ranked UCLA split Friday's doubleheader, with the Bruins winning game 1, 6-2, before the Wildcats got even with a 5-1 win in the nightcap.
Dejah Mulipola had two home runs and six RBI across the doubleheader.
Arizona (36-12) and UCLA (40-4) will conclude the series and the regular season on Saturday for Arizona's Senior Day at 1 p.m. MST, where it will honor its seven seniors in a postgame ceremony.
Game 1: UCLA 6, Arizona 2
UCLA scored three runs in the sixth and three runs in the seventh to pull away late and defeat Arizona, 6-2, in the first game of Friday's doubleheader.
In what was a pitchers' duel entering the sixth, with both pitchers dominating the opposing offense, the Bruins hit a pair of home runs, a two-run shot in the sixth and a three-run homer in the seventh, to win the game.
Hanah Bowen's final line does not reflect it, but the junior was fantastic for five innings, holding the Bruins scoreless on two hits through five innings before UCLA put up the six runs. In the end, she gave up six runs on nine hits with three strikeouts and just one walk. She fell to 8-3 on the year.
Arizona's seniors made some noise in the seventh, using a
Jessie Harper single to kick things off and a
Dejah Mulipola home run to put UA on the board. It was Mulipola's 16th of the season, the most on the team.
Alyssa Palomino-Cardoza followed with a double, but that would be it for Arizona.
Game 2: Arizona 5, UCLA 1
Eighth-ranked Arizona picked up its first win vs. a top-five team for the first time since May 30, 2019 (Washington), taking down UCLA, 5-1 in the late game on Friday.
Dejah Mulipola drove in four of Arizona's five runs, picking up a two-run home run in the third and then plating two with an RBI single in the fourth. In the doubleheader, Mulipola homered twice and drove in six. She leads Arizona with 17 home runs and 55 RBI this season.
In the circle, the Wildcats got a combined gem from
Alyssa Denham and
Devyn Netz to hold the high-powered Bruin offense to just one run on two hits. Denham (18-7) was excellent in her bounce-back start, allowing one run on just two hits over six innings. She struck out five and walked eight, but pitched out of trouble all night.
After Denham walked the first two hitters of the seventh, Netz entered with the tying run on deck and nobody out. She needed just four pitches to retire two batters to get three outs, inducing a double play and then another grounder to shut the door and earn her second save of the season.
Offensively, the Wildcats took advantage of a pair of UCLA errors, scoring two unearned runs in the third after an error and then two more unearned runs in the fourth.
The loss for UCLA was just its fourth of the year. Arizona will look to split the four-game series when the teams meet on Saturday at 1 p.m. MST on the Pac-12 Networks.
