2025 WCWS - Inside UCLA softball's dugout party - ESPN

OKLAHOMA CITY — Party hats. Streamers. Star sunglasses. A bubble machine, a disco ball and a unicorn piñata. The hottest club at the Women's College World Series? It's UCLA's dugout.

«It is absolutely feral in there,» Bruins senior Taylor Stephens told ESPN this week. «This program has been partying ever since my freshman year and long before that, too. It's tradition. Our team, our dugout, it's a vibe — it's an undeniable vibe. We just like to have fun.»

UCLA likes to have fun. And seemingly no program is having more of it during the opening weekend of the 2025 WCWS than the No. 9-seeded Bruins, who return Sunday for an elimination game against No. 7-seeded Tennessee (3 p.m. ET, ABC) following a 3-1 loss to No. 12 Texas Tech on Saturday.

Ranked third nationally in runs scored (481), eighth in home runs (98) and anchored by a pitching triumvirate of Taylor Tinsley, Kaitlyn Terry and Addisen Fisher, UCLA made plenty of noise en route to its 34th WCWS appearance — a Division I record. But it wasn't until the Bruins arrived in Oklahoma City this week that their raucous and rowdy party officially spilled back onto the national stage.

Perennially among the loudest dugouts in college softball, the Bruins announced themselves with tinted glasses and disco lights in Thursday's opener against Oregon. After Jessica Clements launched her two-run, walk-off home run, they <a href=«https://x.com/UCLASoftball/status/1928319065283608958?ref_src=» https:>celebrated at home plate

with blue and gold party hats on their heads. On Saturday, UCLA took things up another notch, flooding Devon Park's third-base dugout with bubbles and decorating its walls with paper streamers and balloons. A poster taped onto the dugout wall carried a simple