Someone had better check the softballs being fed to the UCLA
softball team.
The No. 3 Bruins have knocked out 39 long balls in 33 games, and
don’t look to them slowing down soon.
This weekend, they continued their pace, courtesy of the bats of
junior utility player Ashley Herrera, senior third baseman Andrea
Duran, senior catcher Emily Zaplatosch and sophomore right fielder
Krista Colburn.
The round-trippers helped power the Bruins’ wins over
Stanford on Friday and California on Sunday, but could not avert a
defeat to the same Cal Bears on Saturday.
“They were rested, but they were rusty,” UCLA coach
Sue Enquist said of their weekend performance. “We had to get
them game-sharp (over the week).”
UCLA had taken a break for finals at the end of winter quarter.
They then knocked off some of the rust in a loss to Northwestern on
March 26.
Friday the Bruins took on the Cardinal and defeated them 5-4,
courtesy of a walk-off double by junior outfielder Whitney
Holum.
Saturday the Bruins led 3-1 early on with home runs by Duran and
Zaplatosch. The Bears fought back in the top of the fifth, scoring
nine runs on nine consecutive hits to beat the Bruins 10-3.
In spite of the loss, Enquist was proud of the way her team
rebounded from the defeat. She claimed responsibility and praised
the losing pitcher, junior Lisa Dodd.
“(Dodd) pitched an excellent game. We’ve just got to
do a better job stopping the bleeding in those kinds of
situations,” Enquist said.
The Bruins took the loss stoically and prepared for the
weekend’s final game, once again versus Cal, on Sunday.
The Bruins avenged their loss, defeating Cal 3-1. Colburn hit a
solo home run and doubled in two more runs in support of sophomore
pitcher Anjelica Selden.
The Bruins had not won a Pac-10 opener since 2003.
Another milestone was reached amid the home runs and scoring of
the weekend: Selden struck out Cal’s Gina Leomiti on Sunday
to lead off the top of the fifth, recording the 700th strikeout of
her young career.
“I had no clue. It was really just like any other,”
Selden said of reaching the milestone. “When I set the
single-season record last year, everyone knew about it. (Today) I
had no idea.”