Today’s matchup with Loyola Marymount represents the start of the home stretch for UCLA softball.
With just six games remaining before postseason play, the Bruins are hoping to finally find what has been eluding them all season – consistency – against a Lions team that has won nine of its last 12 games.
If UCLA’s last two series, against Arizona and Oregon respectively, are any indication, the Bruins can at least expect production out of their offense. After scoring four runs or fewer in eight of its first nine conference games, UCLA has come on strong at the plate. In their last seven games, the Bruins averaged over seven runs a game, as opposed to just under four in their first seven games of conference play.
The sudden jump in runs can largely be attributed to the Bruins’ rediscovery of the long ball. UCLA has left the yard at least once in each of their last seven games, and 19 total over that stretch. Chief among those Bruins hitting well is freshman third baseman Mysha Sataraka. Sataraka has four home runs in her last six games, compared to just three over her previous 25. The freshman was quick to credit her teammates as well as a simpler approach at the plate for her increased production.
“I’m just going up there and not thinking so much,” Sataraka said. “Just how much my teammates and my coaches believe in me, even if I go down swinging or have a bad at-bat, they believe in me and I know that they all have my back.”
While Sataraka and the Bruins seem to have found their form at the plate, the pitching that had carried them through much of the team’s early offensive struggles has been inconsistent as of late. After holding Arizona to just four runs in the last two games of their three-game series, UCLA pitchers were a little more Jekyll than Hyde last weekend against Oregon.
UCLA pitchers held the powerful Oregon offense to just three runs through five innings in all three of their games against the Ducks. However they gave up 12 combined runs in the sixth and seventh innings of the series, resulting in two losses. Coach Kelly Inouye-Perez stressed the necessity of closing out games to her team if it wants to find itself playing deep into postseason.
“I told them straight up we’ve done some pretty big things this year; we’ve had everything it takes to win,” Inouye-Perez said. “It’s finding that consistency to be able to go for it in the close, it’s having that ability to literally finish a ball game and be aggressive.”
As the calendar shifts to May, so does the regular season into postseason. With postseason comes the expectation of a deep run at a national championship. However, as assistant coach Lisa Fernandez points out, there is still time for the Bruins’ pitching staff to rebound from their recent struggles and regain the strong form they have shown at varying times throughout the season.
“At this point in the season, no one is handing out national championships,” said Fernandez, who won two championships as a pitcher for UCLA. “This is a great opportunity for them to gain experience about what it’s going to take to be a champion and you can’t make those kinds of mistakes.
“They’re frustrated because they know they are so close; they just have to get over the hump, and they will.”