This past weekend, UCLA softball’s three-game sweep of Stanford was about as one-sided as it gets. The Bruins outscored the Cardinal 40-9, inducing the mercy rule in all three games.
The different offenses of both teams featured prominently in UCLA’s 40-run rout, but the series also highlighted the differences between the two teams’ pitching staffs.
No. 9 UCLA (35-8, 9-3 Pac-12) currently leads the Pac-12 in almost every major pitching category, including ERA, opponent’s batting average and strikeouts. Stanford is last in the Pac-12 in each of those three categories. These polarized levels of performance led each team to employ different pitching strategies.
Coach Kelly Inouye-Perez gave credit to Stanford for its pitch-by-committee approach, as the Cardinal work several pitchers into every game without a predominant starter.
“It’s actually more difficult,” Perez said. “This weekend, they changed pitchers every inning, which doesn’t allow you to get comfortable, kind of throws off your timing, so I credit our hitters even more for being able to adjust and have quality at bats.”
Over the weekend, Stanford used five pitchers on Friday, and four on both Saturday and Sunday. No Stanford pitcher ever threw more than two innings. This strategy is designed to keep opposing hitters from seeing any single pitcher multiple times.
Statistics across baseball and softball generally show that hitters’ batting averages steadily increase as they face the same pitcher for a second and third time. So Stanford did its best to limit those types of at bats.
Senior catcher Stephany LaRosa said her team’s ability to focus was useful in combating this strategy.
“Having them throw that into the mix makes us come out a little more focused and dialed in,” LaRosa said. “You’re not going to get that second or third or fourth at bat off the same pitcher.”
UCLA, on the other hand, used only two pitchers in each of the three games and routinely had pitchers throwing four and five innings in a single game. Even in Saturday’s game, when freshman starting pitcher Johanna Grauer was unable to retire a batter, fellow freshman Selina Ta’amilo came on in relief and threw five strong innings.
“I already knew from the beginning that if something happened, then I would go in for relief. So it wasn’t hard to warm up,” Ta’amilo said. “If Johanna needs help, I always have her back.”
Since UCLA has three quality, healthy pitchers to turn to, the team has the ability to game-plan in a way that Stanford does not. The Cardinal compensated for its lack of quality and health in its staff by mixing and matching pitchers.
“In our sport, having one pitcher, you’re fortunate; having two, you can win a championship; having three is a luxury,” Inouye-Perez said. “Stanford had several people that aren’t pitchers because their pitchers are hurt. They had a lot of people step up and do what they could for the team, but that’s not their (true) pitching staff.”