This year’s UCLA softball team is on pace to be one of the
best power-hitting teams in school history.
So far, the Bruins have hit 55 home runs. While home runs tend
to go in up-and-down swings throughout the year, UCLA’s bats
have been consistent throughout the season.
This is a testament to how players can rack up impressive stats
when they stay within themselves.
“When you try to hit a home run, you won’t hit a
home run,” senior Claire Sua said. “As hitters, we just
look at trying to hit the ball solidly and get in an RBI situation.
And sometimes it just goes.”
Sua’s power numbers last year launched her onto the first
All-America team. This year, batting cleanup, she is tied for third
on the team with six home runs.
She is part of a lineup full of deep threats, which makes it
that much more important to just get on base for the next
batter.
This strategy applies most of all to sophomore Andrea Duran, who
is sandwiched between the Bruins’ two long-ball leaders,
Caitlin Benyi and Stephanie Ramos.
“My job is mainly to get the bunt down or set the
table,” Duran said. “I don’t go for the big hit.
I just try to get on base anyway I can for Ramos to hit me
in.”
Duran also has six home runs, which is part of the balance that
is sending the Bruins to a record home run pace.
UCLA has averaged 1.57 home runs per game so far this season.
When the 1999 team set the school record for home runs, they only
hit 1.37 home runs per game.
“It’s really not something that we’re looking
to do, but we’re just getting lucky,” Sua said.
Yet, it is unlikely that this year’s team will break the
1999 team’s record of 95 homers. That team also set a record
for games played, while this year’s team has played
relatively few games.
Coach Sue Enquist said that the team’s power has not
changed her strategy this season.
She does not want her players to focus on trying to hit home
runs or setting any sort of home run record.
“There is no added pressure that, “˜Oh, we’ve
got to keep hitting them,'” Enquist said.
“It’s when you stop thinking about it that they start
coming.”
This approach will be critical as the Bruins continue through
the Pac-10 season and into the postseason, as UCLA faces
increasingly difficult opposing pitchers.