Sophomore infielder Kellie Fox and the Bruins face Kentucky this weekend. Fox was named to the All Pac-10 First Team last year.
When it comes to practice, the UCLA softball team believes enough is enough.
The Bruins’ bid to repeat their 2010 national title last year fell short in the NCAA Regionals, dropping a three-game series with eventual runner-up Florida. Since its loss to the Gators, the Bruins have been champing at the bit to get back out on the field, and practicing every day hasn’t been enough to satisfy them.
“It’s exciting, always, to put the uniform on and start playing another team in the other dugout instead of scrimmaging each other for the whole month of January,” senior outfielder Andrea Harrison said.
Harrison and UCLA (No. 19 National Fastpitch Coaches Association/No. 13 USA Softball) will finally get their wish when they open the season today against Kentucky (No. 13 NFCA/ No. 18 USA Softball). The game will be the first of four that the Bruins will play in the Stacy Winsberg Memorial Tournament, in which they’ve gone 42-5 overall in the last 10 years.
Kentucky and Pacific will both be making their first appearance in the tournament. During last year’s 5-0 sweep of the tournament, Harrison’s team-high three home runs and 12 runs batted in helped the Bruins cruise to a 59-6 win.
“We’re really excited and ready to start playing,” sophomore pitcher Jessica Hall said. “Just practicing isn’t enough. We want to get out there and show all our hard work off.”
Last season, Hall led the Bruins in wins with a 16-9 overall record on the strength of a 2.59 earned run average and was named to the Pac-10 All-Freshman Team.
The Bruins open play with games against Kentucky tonight and Friday and close out the tournament with a doubleheader against Pacific and Kentucky on Saturday.
“We’re all to the point where we’re prepared to be able to get out there and get tested and the thing for me is how we respond to those tests,” coach Kelly Inouye-Perez said.
“The marker for where this team is going to be really good in the end is how we manage adversity because the game will definitely throw it at us.”
With seven incoming freshmen and seven seniors, the Bruins will need to find the right combination of experience and youth.
“We have a little saying here that the game doesn’t know how old you are so nobody steps in as a freshman or a senior. Everyone steps out as Bruins, and they’re expected to step up and play,” Inouye-Perez said.
“We don’t pick leaders. I think a big part of that is you get out there and you earn it ““ you earn it with your hard work.”
Harrison and sophomore infielder Kellie Fox were two of 50 players named to the preseason Watch List for the 2012 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year award by the Amateur Softball Association of America.
Harrison led the team in batting average (.409), home runs (15) and RBIs (52) last season. Fox finished third on the team in batting average (.342), tied for second in home runs (11) and finished second in RBIs (45). Both players were named to the All-Pac 10 Team last season.
“It being my senior year puts not more pressure but a little more urgency on everything, just knowing that my career is almost up and trying to get this team back on track,” Harrison said.
Despite being picked to finish fourth in the Pac-12 preseason poll, Inouye-Perez, who is in her sixth year as coach and 24th year with the program, and her players understand the goal each year.
“Every year, the expectation of being a Bruin is winning a championship,” Inouye-Perez said of the 12-time national champions. “But we understand that you literally play the game day by day, pitch by pitch so where we all expect to get to in the end, how we get to the end, will be a process because the game will challenge you every single day.”
“I love that part of it, I love the process, and our goal is to be at our best in the end.”