Jodie Legaspi has made a habit of turning up her game as the regular season winds down.
If her last two games were any indication, this year will be no exception.
The senior shortstop gave the Bruin offense a huge lift, smacking two home runs and driving in five runs in a 6-3 victory against No. 13 Oregon State on Saturday. Then on Sunday, with the Bruins down 2-0 in the fourth inning and senior Lisa Dodd on first base, Legaspi blasted a line drive that carried over the center field fence to tie the game. Legaspi also walked and scored the winning run in the bottom of the sixth inning of the Bruins’ 5-3 win.
Legaspi has had at least one RBI in each of her last five games.
“Traditionally, I always buckle down the last two weeks of Pac-10 going into post-season ““ that’s my time,” Legaspi said. “My team needs me to be able to pick up runs, whether it’s with a home run, an RBI here or there, or whatever it is, I want to be able to scrap it out and get those runners in.”
Legaspi, who hits in the cleanup spot in the lineup, is having a stellar senior season overall. She trails Dodd by one for the team lead in home runs (11) and RBIs (43), and is third on the team with a .367 batting average. She has also shown a great deal of patience at the plate this season, leading the team with 34 walks and a .503 on-base percentage.
Meanwhile, Dodd helped set the table for Legaspi and the rest of the Bruin team, getting hits in front of Legaspi and setting her and freshman Megan Langenfeld up for RBIs in Sunday’s game. Dodd went 5-10 in the Bruins’ three-game sweep of the Oregon schools last weekend.
“Jodie Legaspi is our go-to,” UCLA coach Kelly-Inouye Perez said. “Lisa Dodd is our go-to. When those two hit, great things happen.”
AN EMERGING STAR: After yet another big weekend against the Oregon schools, it’s becoming clearer and clearer that Langenfeld is emerging as one of the stars of the team.
Langenfeld made back-to-back starts for the first time of her career on Friday and Saturday. On Friday, she tossed a five-hit shutout in the 8-0 win over No. 16 Oregon. On Saturday, she again threw a complete game five-hitter and recorded another victory to run her season record to 10-1.
And then on Sunday, she was brought onto the mound in relief in the seventh inning with the Bruins up 5-3, but with two Beaver runners on base and just one out. Despite an error that loaded the bases produced by the first batter that she faced, Langenfeld calmly retired the next two batters to earn her first career save. It saved junior pitcher Anjelica Selden the victory on a day in which she broke the all-time Bruin strikeout record.
“(Langenfeld’s) ability to execute and compete on the mound was key this weekend,” Inouye-Perez said. “You’re not going to see her with the most wicked anything, but she knows how to pitch. She throws strikes.”
Langenfeld, the No. 5 hitter in the lineup and first baseman when she doesn’t pitch, also drove in the two winning runs on Sunday with a line drive single to left field on a 2-0 count to give the Bruins their first and last lead of the game. The hit drew an excited fist pump and a burst of emotion from the freshman.
“I was just thinking, just make good contact and hit the ball up the middle,” Langenfeld said. “Once I got the hit, it just exploded, all the emotions were going and it was so much fun.”