With six of its eight teams ranked in the top 25, it looks as though the Pac-10 is once again holding down the top spot in college softball.
That means the road to a Pac-10 championship won’t be easy for No. 1 UCLA, and neither will the next 18 games of conference play.
Even so, the Bruins are coming off of a three-game sweep of the Oregon schools in the first weekend of conference play and hold a 31-3 overall record as they head into today’s game against No. 24 Washington. As always, the team expects the game to be a battle.
“I think Washington is a quality ball club,” coach Kelly Inouye-Perez said. “They always have talented pitching and a pretty solid offensive attack. But for us, once again the challenge is to play UCLA softball. We’ve had some great battles against UW, and we always look forward to a great challenge when we face them.”
Despite the conference’s strength and the importance of winning league games, Inouye-Perez is trying to ensure that her players keep things in perspective. To this Bruin squad, every game can be viewed as a chance to get better.
“The focus has been to make sure we don’t make things bigger than they are,” Inouye-Perez said. “Pac-10 starts and you have a tendency to say, “˜This means more and is bigger than the rest of the season,’ and that can be a fatal error. For us, we still are just trying to stay focused on ourselves and play consistent softball. Pac-10 is just another opportunity for us to sharpen up our championship softball.”
Outfielder Katie Schroeder said she enjoys Pac-10 play because the level of competition is so high.
“Pac-10 is really, really fun because, no matter who you play, anyone can win,” Schroeder said. “I don’t care if you’re ranked No. 1 like we are or you’re ranked No. 30 like some other team. Every game is a good game because everyone is from the Pac-10, and everyone who plays in the Pac-10 is legit.”
Today’s game against the Huskies is another midweek game for the Bruins, squeezed between two long weekend series. The team has had to play games like this throughout the course of the season, but according to Schroeder, the team struggled in midweek games earlier in the year.
“It’s hard physically (to play in the middle of the week),” she said. “It does take a toll on the body because we played so many games during the weekend, and then we have to come and go to school, but mentally, it’s even tougher. It’s all about mentally preparing for a midweek game because that’s what’s killing us: just being so tired. I’m sure this will be different though because it’s the first Pac-10 mid-week game.”
Regardless, both Inouye-Perez and shortstop Monica Harrison are happy with how the season has unfolded thus far and with the way the team opened up conference play last weekend.
“(Winning) feels good because we just wanted to make it known that the Bruins are back this year, and we are ready to contend for the Pac-10 title,” Harrison said.