Throughout all of the trials and tribulations that this season has brought them, the UCLA softball team has persevered.
Now the real test begins.
UCLA (36-16) begins a difficult road to the Women’s College World Series today as it hosts Loyola Marymount (45-16) in its first game of NCAA Regional play.
“We’re playing our best ball right now and with that comes confidence,” UCLA coach Kelly Inouye-Perez said. “We’ve pulled it together; we’ve learned how to manage the fact that we’re not perfect and we’re fighting. Anything can happen.”
The Bruins enter the 2007 postseason as somewhat of an underdog. UCLA is seeded 12th out of the field of 64, but is set up to face fifth-seeded Tennessee in Knoxville should the Bruins manage to advance out of their difficult Regional. The Volunteers, led by star senior pitcher Monica Abbott, have been the top-ranked team for most of the season.
But the experience and talent UCLA has make the Bruins a potential dark horse. UCLA’s eight seniors have already experienced a great deal of success in the underdog role before. Seven of the eight seniors were sophomores in 2005 on a team that had gone just 30-16 in the regular season. That Bruin team made it all the way to the National Title game, falling just short of defending its national title from the year before. Ironically, the Bruins’ first Regional opponent in 2005 was Loyola Marymount.
Last season, UCLA’s spectacular regular season earned it the top overall seed in postseason play, but the Bruins were eliminated in the semifinals of the World Series.
“We’ve been in a similar situation before and we’ve won it,” Inouye-Perez said. “We’ve been the No. 1 seed and done great things and we haven’t won it. We have girls that have been on a championship team and know what it feels like. There’s not a lot of first for this group and that’s really exciting because it allows the freshmen to follow the leadership. That’s how this program works.”
This season by itself has been full of ups and downs for the Bruins. UCLA started off the season in sloppy fashion and did not begin to play to its potential until the second half of Pac-10 play. But after taking two of three games in the desert against the highly touted Arizona schools, the Bruins couldn’t feel better about where they stand heading into postseason regardless of the daunting task that lies ahead of them.
“We’ve had our ups and downs this year and everyone kind of counts us out,” Lisa Dodd said. “We’ve been through all the bad times and now we’re able to handle it. If we get down in a game, we know how to fix it and what to change. We like being the underdog. Bring them on, bring whoever on, who cares who’s in the other dugout.”
LANGENFELD EARNS START: Junior pitcher Anjelica Selden has pitched every single postseason inning the past two seasons. But as Selden has struggled throughout the season, freshman Megan Langenfeld has continued to thrive, particularly through Pac-10 play. As a result, it will be Langenfeld, not Selden, who starts today’s game against Loyola Marymount.
“Megan has proven to be our go-to,” Inouye-Perez said. “She’s done everything possible up until now to be able to be the favorable starter (today).”
Langenfeld has proven to be clutch with the bat and on the mound for the Bruins as the season has wound down. She was named Pac-10 Softball Pitcher of the Week for a heroic effort in the desert, where she displayed a veteran’s poise against both the Wildcats and Sun Devils at bay after falling behind early in the games. Against Arizona, Langenfeld pitched a scoreless final five innings while hitting a go-ahead three-run home run in the fifth inning to give the Bruins the win over the NCAA Tournament’s top overall seed. It was an experience that Inouye-Perez thinks was invaluable for Langenfeld to have heading into postseason play as a freshman.
“I had never experienced something where the umpires were so one-sided,” Langenfeld explained. “As far as the crowd, you wouldn’t have expected 50 and over people to be yelling the things that they were. They were brutal.”
BRUINS RECEIVE HONORS: Dodd, senior shortstop Jodie Legaspi and junior outfielder Krista Colburn were all named first-team All-Pac-10 on Wednesday while Langenfeld was named second-team All-Pac-10.
Meanwhile, Selden, senior catcher Jaisa Creps, senior outfielders Tara Henry and Whitney Holum, and freshman utility player Kaila Shull all earned Pac-10 honorable mentions.
Dodd and Colburn also earned first-team All-Pacific Region honors while Selden and Langenfeld made second-team All-Region.