After falling to 2-6 in the Pac-10, softball coach Sue Enquist
knew she needed to change her team’s momentum.
She moved around two of the team’s best hitters and put
another pair of players into the lineup for the first time in
conference play.
The gambit worked, as the No. 4 Bruins won both games against
No. 5 Cal, scoring eight runs against one of the nation’s top
pitching staffs.
Enquist took a risk in moving sophomore Caitlin Benyi ““
the conference’s leading home run hitter ““ to the third
spot in the order.
Through most of the season UCLA was known for its fast starts,
with Benyi starting things as the leadoff hitter.
But the bottom of the lineup had been unable to get on base, so
she was hammering the ball out of the park with no one on base,
wasting some of her hot streak.
“I wanted to flip-flop Benyi and (Stephanie) Ramos knowing
Benyi was doing such a great job with the RBI opportunities,”
Enquist said.
Ramos was moved into the leadoff position after hitting third
all season, but she is not a typical leadoff hitter. Ramos is more
of a slugger, leading the Bruins in batting and RBI.
Hitting leadoff sets the tone for the rest of the team, which is
why Enquist didn’t want to move Benyi from that spot.
Ramos said it was “no big deal” to be hitting
leadoff, something she had done earlier in her career, but as the
leadoff hitter she wanted to set the tone.
“We were just trying to be aggressive and push runs across
any way we can,” Ramos said.
For most of conference play UCLA has depended upon the long ball
to score instead of manufacturing runs.
They had generally been unable to get a clutch hit with runners
on base, which is part of the reason the Bruins have struggled.
Then there is the bottom of the lineup, which has struggled to
get any sort of hit in the past few weeks, prompting a change.
Sophomore Alissa Eno got the first start of her career,
replacing freshman Kristen Dedmon as designated player.
Senior Julie Hoshisaki, who had started a few games at left
field, got the nod again over freshman Tara Henry.
Both players were inserted to try and upgrade the team’s
offense after being shut out for the first time all season against
Stanford on Friday.
“I’m just looking for somebody that can swing when
(the pitch) comes in the zone and hold up when it doesn’t,”
Enquist said.
Despite being happy about being re-inserted into the lineup,
Hoshisaki said the lineup changes weren’t critical to the
team’s success.
“No matter who was in the lineup we were on a mission, and
whoever was in that lineup was going to get it done,”
Hoshisaki said.