The Bruins will try to avoid another home upset this weekend.
“You can’t guarantee that you’re going to have your best game every day, but you can be focused on being the best you can be that day,” said assistant coach Kirk Walker. “And if we can stay there, then hopefully good things happen for us.”
No. 2 UCLA softball (40-2, 14-1 Pac-12) will face off against unranked Utah (15-29, 4-11) this weekend in a three-game home series.
Utah currently holds a losing record both overall and in conference play this season. However, the Utes have pulled off a few upsets against top-ranked teams this season.
Utah is coming off a series against Washington in which it upset the No. 4 team in the country by a score of 5-4 after rallying from being down 4-0 with the help of a grand slam by Alyssa Barrera. Barrera is currently leading the conference in triples and ranks in the top 10 in batting average among Pac-12 hitters at .390.
“Even if you’re a team that’s in the bottom half of our conference, you could on any day beat one of the teams at the top of our conference because there’s that much talent in our conference,” Walker said. “When you have a team that’s struggled to get a win and they get a chance in the game, the tenacity just goes through the roof.”
While UCLA is coming off a sweep at Oregon State, it was recently upset by unranked Oregon at home.
“I mean, (an upset) happened to us with Oregon, so it can literally happen to anyone,” said sophomore pitcher Holly Azevedo. “If a team’s hot, they’re hot in the game, you know? It’s just momentum at that point.”
The Bruins do have an advantage over the Utes in terms of pitching, as UCLA currently holds the best ERA in the Pac-12 at 1.21. The Bruins are led in the circle by redshirt junior Rachel Garcia’s 0.68 individual ERA, which is also good for best in the conference. In contrast, Utah has the worst ERA in the conference at 6.54, and none of its regular pitchers have an ERA better than 5.23.
Redshirt sophomore utility Aaliyah Jordan said that in order for UCLA to get the wins this weekend and avoid any possible upsets, the team needs to start strong against the Utah pitchers and never let up.
“Anything can happen, so when we get ahead, we need to just stay ahead,” Jordan said. “If we score eight runs in the first inning, just don’t let that be the only inning we score, but continuously score because anybody can come back at any time.”
This weekend also marks Alumni Weekend for the Bruins, who will welcome back former players for the annual event.
“It’s always a little special when we always have alumni here,” Walker said. “It feels extra special to represent the program and its history and I know that it’s a great opportunity for me to see a lot of friends and players that I coached as well.”
The series will begin at 7 p.m. on Friday night at Easton Stadium.