Softball struggles to adjust to differences in Pac-12 play

The Pac-12 play has not been kind to the No. 12 Bruins, as they have lost four of their last five games.

But the Bruins (25-8, 2-4 Pac-12) battled to win one of the three games against the No. 15 Stanford Cardinal, just as they did in their previous series against the No. 2 Arizona State Sun Devils.

Some of the struggles can be attributed to the team still adjusting to the difference of playing a three-game series against one opponent during Pac-12 play rather than facing multiple teams in one weekend.

“Especially after facing ASU last weekend, I think that was a good showing for us in just understanding how Pac-12 (play) works and facing opponents three times,” said junior pitcher Jessica Hall. “I think we’ve done a good job about learning our opponents quickly and just coming out there and staying … one step ahead of them.”

In the first game of the series, UCLA scored first but only watched Stanford runners cross the plate for the rest of the game as they lost 5-1. This extended its losing streak to three games.

The Bruins snapped that streak in an extra-inning affair in the second game on Friday night.

The offense had been sputtering in the last three losses with games of only six, five and five hits, respectively, but broke out of the slump with 14 hits.

“Our whole team just bought in to the energy and everything,” said freshman infielder Britney Rodriguez. “We were just feeding off each other and things just turned around.”

The Bruins trailed by four runs at one point, but took the lead in the fifth on a rally that was capped by a solo home run from Rodriguez. The Cardinal pushed across a run in the bottom half of the inning, sending the game to extra frames.

Hall singled in the go-ahead run and the Bruins added two more after that to seal the 8-5 victory.

That momentum did not carry over into the series finale, however, as the Bruins were shutout 2-0.

As the team dives deeper into the Pac-12 schedule, coach Kelly Inouye-Perez praised the team’s ability to fight back from deficits and compete until the final out.

“We just got to continue to fight … give yourself the opportunity to come up with that timely hit and that’s what’s happening,” Inouye-Perez said. “We have been hitting the ball well, not always clutching up when we need to, but that’s our sport. You just got to keep fighting.”

Email Drantch at jdrantch@media.ucla.edu.

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