Maya Brady explains UCLA's poise in comeback win over Alabama in Game 1 of WCWS

The UCLA softball team showed remarkable resilience in an opening-round game against Alabama at the Women’s College World Series, taking a tight 1-1 game into the late frames before blowing the game open with a clutch hit.

The damage came courtesy of Jordan Woolery, who powered a 1-1 pitch over the left field wall for a 3-run home run, making it 4-1 UCLA in the bottom of the sixth inning.

“I think I literally stopped, turned around and watched the ball go out,” said star Maya Brady after the win. “I literally wanted to make sure it went out. It was just, she just hammered that ball. It was right in her area code.”

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Brady praised her teammate for being the perfect one to break the deadlock. Things haven’t always been smooth for Woolery this season, but the sensational sophomore has done her best to always keep her cool.

That put her in place Thursday to deliver when it mattered most.

“Honestly Jordan is the best teammate. She’s one of my best friends,” Brady said. “Just a quality person overall and she goes into every day of practice, every game and she gives players like me confidence, and I’ve been here before. She makes me feel like I can be myself on the field and just play free. Just seeing her get the results after this year, she’s produced but sophomore slump is real and she’s gone through it this year.

“Just to see her come on this stage and get that outcome was just amazing. I just love playing with her, and I’m going to miss her a lot, so it’s special.”

UCLA was also guided by a terrific bit of work by starting pitcher Kaitlyn Terry on the mound. Terry threw four full innings, giving up just four hits and one run in the process. She struck out three and walked one, mostly maintaining full control in the contest.

“It’s kind of like you said, ignorance is bliss. She’s such a competitor,” Brady said of the freshman pitcher. “To her core she’s a competitor, and I think that ignorance mixed with that fire is an amazing combination for someone like her, especially a young pitcher with this offense behind her. I think, honestly, it allows her to throw fearless. The ignorance plus her kind of just dog is the perfect combination, and I just love playing behind her.”

Brady also praised UCLA’s ability to work its way out of discomfiting situations.

“Going against a quality opponent like that and having to come back late in a game is definitely uncomfortable, but I think what we’ve done really well this year is being comfortable in the uncomfortable,” Brady said. “And that’s something that we’ve worked on from the beginning of the year. We had conversations about that. We knew this year wasn’t going to be pretty and we didn’t expect to go undefeated, we didn’t expect to have it look like the UCLA softball that everybody might be used to seeing.

“And that goes for us players, too, it might not have been what we were used to, but at the end of the day we’ve really bought into the ‘It’s already written’ mantra that we say a lot. I think it just gives us a little bit of weight off our shoulders and allows us to play free, even when we’re down 7-0, 4-0. It allows us to just come together, do a little Bruin magic and the results take care of themselves. But I think it’s honestly just the buy-in from this team into the process in that everything works out. At the end of the day I think we trust each other and we play out of a place of love. I think that can be super powerful and it can give you really good results.”

It certainly did on Thursday, and now the Bruins will await the winner of Oklahoma and Duke in the winner’s bracket in Oklahoma City.