The defending College World Series champions come to Easton
Stadium today.
But Cal is ranked lower nationally than UCLA and was last year
also.
Exactly how scary are the Bears?
“We respect them just like any other team: we know they
are up there. We know what they can and cannot do,” UCLA
designated player Claire Sua said. “But extra motivation? I
don’t know. I guess, maybe.”
Despite winning the Women’s College World Series last
year, Cal was only the No. 6-ranked team in the nation. Now
they’re No. 7.
Rounding out the NorCal weekend, No. 13 Stanford will play the
Bruins Saturday and Sunday. UCLA has played both teams already this
season.
On March 28, it beat the Cardinal 5-0 on a Keira Goerl
no-hitter. The following two days, the Bruins swept Cal, beating
them 3-0 and 4-1 (8 innings).
“The bottom line is, we are looking at the club we are
facing and the pitcher we are facing,” UCLA coach Sue Enquist
said.
“What they did last year is immaterial to us. The fact we
already played both clubs, it is just us trying to capitalize on
the things we didn’t do against Cal and Stanford the first
time we played them.”
Cal features a player who has been referred to as the
“Barry Bonds of softball” in Veronica Nelson. She has
81 walks this season in 50 games, and is hitting .376 with nine
home runs.
In the circle, the Bears have Kelly Anderson, who has an ERA of
0.97 with a record of 16-6.
The Cardinal are led by freshman Lauren Lappin who has a .378
batting average, and pitcher Dana Sorensen, who has an ERA of 1.12
with 249 strikeouts.
But the Bruins are coming off of a weekend in which they swept
No. 3 Washington, winning the second game 10-0 (in six
innings).
“All the energy we have coming out (of the Washington
series) paid off and it gets us those runs; it was a great game. We
realized how much our energy matters early in the game,”
second baseman Monique Mejia said.
Former Dodger great Tommy Lasorda is scheduled to throw the
first pitch in Saturday’s game. He will have an autograph
session afterwards.