Michigan squared off today against UCLA with the series at 1-0 in UCLA's favor. A Michigan loss would send them packing.

I bet if you watched the game on TV you saw this thing cause when I was photographing it the ESPN guy was hovering around too.

Problems arose for the Wolverines when the Bruins scored a run. In games like these, often the first team to score ends up winning.

Michigan was of course discouraged, but still in the game

and then UCLA scored another run the next inning. I started thinking about packing and what time we were going to leave to drive home. Not that I'd given up, but it didn't look good.

Ritter just wasn't getting a whole lotta strikeouts. I think for once I may have come back without a post-strikeout-fist-pump photo. I've got quite a few shots of her watching balls go flying though.

But she kept pitching well so that UCLA just wasn't getting solid pieces of the ball. If they did, it got caught. Coach Hutchins and the team talks about going out to play "Michigan softball" all the time, and the thing about Michigan softball is it's more than just a pitcher.

Giampaolo beating the throw to first.

We'd have never predicted it, but Becky Marx, 1 for 11 in the series up to this point, got a two run homer to get the fifth inning started off and tie the game. To take a quote from the press conference, she said: "Maybe for some it was out of the blue, but I knew I was capable of it. [I had] a bunch of walks and a hit by pitch (during the WCWS), so I never lost faith in myself. I saw Ritter pitching her heart out out there, and I just wanted to do something to let our seniors put the uniform on for one more day."

The fans, one relative quiet, were now full of energy again.

That same inning two runners got on base and Jessica Merchant brought em in, making the score 4-2.

Michigan would hold on to their lead and add another run to win 5-2 and force game 3.

The winner of tomorrow's 6:30 (OKCity time) game becomes national champion

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