After a humbling loss against Michigan last Wednesday, No. 3 UCLA went undefeated in the UCLA/CSUN Invitational this past weekend, securing a 23-1 season record.
UCLA played three sets of back-to-back games against UNLV, Loyola Chicago, Charleston Southern, CSU Bakersfield and Georgetown on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Junior pitcher Ally Carda’s and senior pitcher Jessica Hall’s alternating performances seemed to synchronize in the circle this past weekend.
Carda opened up the tournament with a mercy rule win in the bottom of the sixth against UNLV and Hall followed with the same against Loyola Chicago.
Only eight runs were scored against Carda and Hall throughout the entire Invitational – four against Carda and four against Hall.
In contrast, co-host UCLA scored a total of 37 runs in the six-game tournament.
Hall, who habitually swipes her fingertips in the dirt before each pitch, really got her hands dirty this past weekend: Hall recorded twelve strikeouts in game two, setting a career high.
“I didn’t know what the count even was until a teammate called me out at the end of the game and she gave me props for that,” Hall said.
Interestingly, Hall said she broke her strikeout record by not focusing on strikeouts.
“I kept reminding myself that I’m not a strikeout pitcher, because I didn’t want to make it bigger than it was,” Hall said. “I was just thinking ‘get the groundball outs.’”
In game four, Hall pitched a three-hit shutout in a 4-0 win over Charleston Southern Saturday night.
The invitational gave way to a few other UCLA “career firsts” this past weekend.
Freshman outfielder Jelly Felix made a brief offensive appearance in an at-bat against Michigan last Wednesday, but this weekend’s tournament was Felix’s true first collegiate experience at Easton Stadium, starting in the outfield.
Felix said playing as a UCLA starter gave her childlike excitement.
“I was excited – I felt like a little kid,” Felix said.
Felix hit her first collegiate home run to left field in game two, giving UCLA a 2-1 lead against Loyola Chicago – a game that ultimately resulted in an 11-3 win for the Bruins.
“My personal goal is to have good at bats – I didn’t expect anything big, I didn’t expect that home run to come out,” said Felix, “I just wanted quality at bats.”
Assistant coach Kirk Walker said the Bruins’ journey is what’s important. Walker hopes the Bruins continue to grow and learn as the season progresses.
“Yes, we learned a lot from this tournament, but we have to keep fine-tuning,” Walker said.
UCLA will have a lot to learn about itself this upcoming weekend as the team opens up Pac-12 play.
UCLA plays three home games against Arizona at noon on Saturday and Sunday, then again at 5 p.m. Monday.