WOMEN'S COLLEGE WORLD SERIES: BRUINS DON'T FOLLOW CUE NORTHWESTERN ENDS UCLA'S HOPES OF ADVANCING.

Byline: RAMONA SHELBURNE Staff Writer

The setup was perfect. ESPN even cued up the replay from four years ago to remind fans of how UCLA became only the second team in Women's College World Series history to come back through the loser's bracket to win a national title.

Could UCLA's talented senior class -- Alissa Eno, Caitlin Benyi, Emily Zaplatosch and Andrea Duran -- really go out the same incredible way they had come in? The setup was perfect, all the way down to the bottom-of-the-seventh-inning rally.

But four years ago, when it staged a comeback victory to eliminate Texas in the semifinals on its way to the title, UCLA never let it get to an eighthinning. The Bruins didn't just tie the score in their seventh-inning rally, they won it.

This time around, UCLA's rally fell one hit short, allowing Northwestern to regroup. And in the eighth inning, the underdog Wildcats got up off the mat in a hurry, getting back-to-back home runs from Tammy Williams and Garland Cooper to pull away for a 3-1 victory and eliminate the top-ranked Bruins.

Northwestern (50-13) advanced to play Arizona in the best-of-three national championship series beginning today at 5 p.m. It is the second consecutive year a BigTen team has advanced to the national championship series. Michigan defeated UCLA in three games last season.

``It just wasn't our day today,'' Duran said. ``Anybody can win. We always talk about how the game doesn't know who's supposed to win. It doesn't matter who is in the lineup or anything like that. This is a great team and we knew it was going to be a battle with every single play.''

Duran and the rest of her senior class leave UCLA as one of the most decorated in the program's illustrious history, with two national titles and three appearances in the championship game.

``They wear the uniform with such pride that they have created a template for all future Bruins to emulate,'' UCLA coach Sue Enquist said. ``I speak for my assistant coaches, it has made coaching this year extremely enjoyable and I can honestly tell you I have never ever coached a more enjoyable senior class in the history of being in this program.''

UCLA trailed 1-0 for most of the game but rallied for a run in the seventh. Junior Jodie Legaspi led off with a double down the left-field line and advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by Lisa Dodd. With twoouts, Enquist inserted pinch-hitter Kristen Dedmon, who had only one RBI on the season.

Dedmon was called upon in a similar situation as a freshman, when she delivered the winning RBI in UCLA's 2004 national championship game. This time, Dedmon delivered again. Down to her last strike, Dedmon lined a sharp single to left to score Legaspi.

The next batter, Tara Henry, reached on a bunt single, setting the stage for Duran, the Pacific-10 Conference Player of the Year. Duran had another good at-bat, but got under one of Northwestern pitcher Eileen Canney's screwballs and popped out to shortstop to end the threat.

Williams, a first-team All-American, was the second batter of the eighth inning. She lined an outside fastball from UCLA's Anjelica Selden over the left-field fence. Garland did the same a few pitches later.

The Bruins were retired in order in the bottom half of the inning to send Northwestern to the first national championship series in school history.

``We came in here with nothing to lose,'' Cooper said. ``Every time we are the underdog ... we like that.''

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Northwestern's Tammy Williams circles the bases after hitting a home run in the eighth inning.

Bryan Terry/Associated Press