Five years without a national championship.
For other schools and other sports, that interval can mean high competition or coaching changes, grievous injuries, or bad luck. At best, it means past success. At worst, it means incompetence.
For UCLA softball, five years is uncharted territory. For a program with 11 previous national championships, five years is unheard-of. The Bruins (41-9, 16-5 Pac-10) had never had a class graduate without a championship ring, without an on-field celebration.
Until last year.
Last year’s team mixed veteran experience with youthful talent. UCLA’s all-time strike-out leader pitched with five newcomers starting behind her, and the Bruins went 51-9 in the season. The program roared into Oklahoma, after a year’s absence from the Women’s College World Series, winning six-straight games before losing to Florida and eventual national champion Arizona State.
Bruin coach Kelly Inouye-Perez characterized those losses as sloppy and a result of “UCLA not playing UCLA softball.”
What will make the difference this year?
“Our core returned, and I think that will work to our advantage,” Inouye-Perez said.
A corps of returning veterans, 13 in all, will certainly help. Also helpful is the Bruins’ current offensive explosion: They have hit twice as many home runs as last year, and their offensive numbers are up across the board. But Inouye-Perez said the improvement hasn’t been limited to the offense.
“I think in every category, we’ve improved,” she said.
Even the Bruins’ adversity ““ which has been considerable ““ has helped. They began, and will finish, the year without senior Jennifer Schroeder and sophomore right fielder Samantha Camuso. Both started in 2008.
But the greatest road block occurred at the beginning of the Pac-10 season. After winning the conference opener against Stanford, the Bruins lost four straight. It was the first time the Bruins had lost four in a row since 2004.
“That was the big turning point in the season, when we realized that we shouldn’t be losing four games in a row,” freshman outfielder Andrea Harrison said.
The Bruins rebounded with a 3-2 victory over Arizona and newfound confidence.
“(The losing streak) was something we were all happy to have faced at the beginning of the Pac-10 season,” junior catcher Kaila Shull said.
The Bruins surged after the victory, winning nine straight and 15 of their last 16.
“We’re peaking right now,” Harrison said.
With the playoffs around the corner and the Bruins the No. 2 seed again, the team’s level of play and confidence could not be higher.
“Our goal every year, in this program, is to be able to play in June and to be able to play on that championship day,” Inouye-Perez said. “Anything less than that, we fall short.”