The festivities were in full effect Friday night for the UCLA softball team.
With the marching band and a large crowd on hand to lend support, the Bruins kicked off their Pac-10 home opener with much fanfare.
But by Sunday afternoon, the atmosphere dropped from merry to somber, as No. 4 UCLA (27-9, 1-5 Pac-10) concluded its winless weekend with a 2-1 loss to No. 9 Arizona State (35-6, 4-2).
The latest results come in the wake of a rough outing on the road against Washington in which the Bruins lost two of three games, bringing the losing streak to five games.
“We’re putting ourselves in position to win games, but we’re just not coming through with it, and that is frustrating,” coach Kelly Inouye-Perez said. “It doesn’t matter who we play; at this point, we just have to get back out there and keep on fighting because that’s all we can do at this point.”
Despite the symphony of the home crowd emanating from the bleachers, the Sun Devils made the loudest statement on Friday with a pinch-hit grand slam in the sixth inning off junior pitcher Donna Kerr. The Bruins never fully recovered from then on, losing their first home game of the season 8-5.
Looking for a change in results, Inouye-Perez tweaked her batting lineup in preparation for Saturday, moving freshman center fielder B.B. Bates from lead-off to ninth and bumping sophomore left fielder Andrea Harrison from the clean-up spot to lead-off.
However, Arizona State once again came away the victor. With the bases loaded in the top of the seventh and the Sun Devils ahead 2-1, Arizona State’s Kaylyn Castillo grounded the ball to shortstop, but a fielding error by sophomore first baseman Dani Yudin allowed two runs to score. Despite a one-out, run-scoring double by Harrison, UCLA came up empty on its last two outs and ended the game with a 4-2 loss.
The Bruins’ offensive deficiencies carried over into Sunday’s series finale, this time an RBI double by Bates proving to be the only run that UCLA scored all game.
In the circle, Whitney Baker made her first start of the season and pitched a stellar game despite the registered loss. Riddled with injuries earlier in the season, the junior pitcher made her season debut on Friday, pitching a scoreless inning in relief. On Sunday, Baker gave up eight hits but allowed just two runs in seven innings.
“I felt good getting out there,” she said. “When you sit back (with an injury), you have a different perspective on the game. You become a student of the game, and I think that helped me the first time I got out there (on Friday).”
With a 1-5 record in a conference that boasts some of the toughest competition in the country, the Bruins find themselves in a critical position on their road to defending their conference title.
“We expect a lot from ourselves, so we have to come hard, no matter who we play,” Bates said.