Jordan Chiles is That Girl.
But Taylor Tinsley is UCLA softball’s rendition.
The senior pitcher has pitched the sixth-most innings out of any pitcher in the nation, completing 215 frames while recording the second-most circle wins with 32 this season thus far.
And she has thrown the Bruins’ last 25 innings, which amounted to four complete-game victories across the Los Angeles regional and super regional, a tournament slate where the Bruins outscored their opponents 45-8.
“She’s gotten us back to the World Series the last three years,” said coach Kelly Inouye-Perez. “I am grateful that she’s in great shape, that she’s committed to her training. As Lisa (associate head coach Lisa Fernandez) would say, ‘She’s built for this,’ but it’s what she came here to do.”
The Bruins have essentially relied solely on Tinsley to spearhead their pitching effort, as freshman southpaw Natalie Cable and sophomore pitcher Brynne Nally have pitched a combined 3.2 innings throughout the Westwood squad’s postseason campaign.
Yet UCLA’s lack of bullpen depth may not doom the squad against top competition at the Women’s College World Series.
Former Alabama pitcher Jackie Traina threw every pitch of the Crimson Tide’s 2012 WCWS run, when the squad earned its first national championship in program history.
Pitcher NiJaree Canady, a USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year finalist, pitched almost every inning of runner-up Texas Tech’s showing at the national tournament last year and allowed just seven earned runs across her first 34 innings of the 2025 WCWS.
Although Canady imploded in the title-deciding contest against Texas, when she forfeited five runs in just one inning, her individual dominance demonstrated that a team can make a deep run even with one pitching option.
And even Texas, the defending champion, ran Teagan Kavan out in the circle for 207 innings of the squad’s 431.2 combined frames in 2025. Kavan pitched all 14 innings across the Longhorns’ two WCWS Final series victories.
Inouye-Perez said that Tinsley’s more limited usage throughout the regular season was deliberate so that the Bruin ace could take the sole pitching role in the 2026 Big Ten and NCAA tournaments.
“We didn’t use her (Tinsley) in every single game the entire season, and we put her in a position to be at her best at the end,” Inouye-Perez said. “She wants to do whatever she can for the team. Here we are on the last lap, and it’s our opportunity.”
The 20-year head honcho added that Tinsley wanted Fernandez to give her a strenuous training regimen during the offseason in preparation for taking on the ace role, which was a novel responsibility for the Lawrenceville, Georgia, local.
And this offseason training helped shape Tinsley’s mental fortitude as well, which was highlighted throughout her regional and super regional outings.
The senior pitcher, after throwing all but one inning in the Big Ten tournament from May 7 to May 9, forfeited nine runs against Cal Baptist on May 15 in UCLA’s first Los Angeles regional game. Tinsley’s collapse forced the Bruin lineup to score five unanswered runs across the last two innings to scrape by with a walk-off victory.
Still, the 2025 NFCA Third Team All-American selection’s mental grit clinched the Bruins’ 34th WCWS berth, since she surrendered just eight combined runs across her four games following the Cal Baptist meltdown.
“She’s a true competitor,” said UCF coach Cindy Ball-Malone after UCLA’s 14-4 victory against her squad Saturday. “I’m looking forward to coaching her during the summer, but being against her is not fun. She’s good, and she got better as she kept going.”
And catchers help spearhead pitching success.
Redshirt junior catcher Alexis Ramirez, nicknamed “Lefty” because of her atypical left-handedness behind the plate, has been Tinsley’s primary battery partner.
The chemistry between Tinsley and Ramirez has seemingly bolstered the pitcher’s circle performance this year, advising the senior pitcher on what pitch to throw given particular in-game situations while providing emotional stability.
The pitcher-catcher tandem’s comfort could further bolster Tinsley’s ability to carry the team to its first national championship since 2019.
“Her mentality when she’s out there, she knows that she has – we say it’s nine on one – and she truly believes that, and she’s able to just get herself back into a rhythm, focus on deep breaths, and our connection is something that I value a lot,” Ramirez said.
Tinsley will start against No. 1 seed Alabama on Thursday afternoon, and although she faced only one AP Top 25 team, No. 23 UCF, in the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament, she can use the experience as a guide to how to limit the nation’s best squads while relying on a top-ranked offense.
Softball’s version of That Girl gives UCLA a fighting chance.
“She’s a dream come true for me as a coach,” Inouye-Perez said.
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