UCLA SWEEPS CSUN : UCLA 2-6, CSUN 1-2.

Byline: Vincent Bonsignore Daily News Staff Writer

So this is what it's come to in a special year for the UCLA softball team.

Down by a run with two outs in the next-to-last inning, Cal State Northridge pitcher Tara Glaister doesn't pitch far enough around Stacey Nuveman, who deposits Glaister's pitch over the right-field fence to tie the game. Then, with two outs in the seventh and the score tied, UCLA's Chrissy Buck just happens to hit her first home run of season. It turned out to be the game-winner in the Bruins' 2-1 victory over host Northridge in the first game of a doubleheader.

UCLA won the second game 6-2, stretching its record to 35-0. The Bruins travel to Washington on Saturday, where a doubleheader sweep will tie them with the 1996 Princeton club for the most consecutive wins in NCAA history.

You don't win 35 straight games without some late-game heroics. UCLA proved that Wednesday, although it's nothing unusual for this team. UCLA beat Fresno State on Julie Adams' two-out, two-run home run on March 7, and Adams tied a game the Bruins eventually won at Texas with a seventh-inning, two-run shot in February.

That's how you become the No. 1 team in the country.

``Not to sound cocky or anything, but I have so much confidence in this team that I believe they'll always come back,'' UCLA coach Sue Enquist said. ``They've done it so many times before.''

Still, even Enquist was surprised when Buck turned on an inside fastball and lined it over the left-field fence - just inside the foul pole - to break the tie.

So was Buck. She put her head down and sprinted toward first base, thinking the ball was in play.

``I figured it was a double at the most,'' Buck said. ``But by the time I reached second base my third-base coach was waving me around.''

The day was quite a homecoming for former Monroe High standout Lupe Brambila, who is quickly becoming a UCLA fan favorite. A sophomore walk-on, Brambila has earned the starting job in right field. On Wednesday, she finished with two hits and an RBI, three runs scored, a stolen base and a terrific diving catch.

``I'm just having a lot of fun right now, trying to play my best,'' said Brambila, who went to UCLA for academics last year, then tried out for the team when the Bruins redshirted most of their players. UCLA was serving a postseason suspension, so a number of key players sat out to preserve a year of eligibility.

Northridge took a 1-0 lead in the fifth inning of game one when Katrina Nolletti beat out a throw to the plate from first baseman Julie Marshall.

The run held up until Nuveman came up with two out in the sixth.

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PHOTO CSUN's Katrina Nolletti slides safely past UCLA catcher Stacey Nuveman on Wednesday. Nuveman would later homer in the Bruins' doubleheader sweep.

David Sprague/Daily News