This year’s UCLA softball team has gone wherever their bats have led them.
The No. 7-ranked Bruins (27-8, 2-4 Pac-10) have already hit 45 home runs this season, compared to the 36 they registered all of last season.
However, they went homerless in the past three games and dropped two of those contests.
Over the last five games the Bruins’ bats were plagued by inconsistency ““ UCLA dropped four consecutive games before narrowly edging out Arizona, 3-2 on Sunday.
UCLA’s biggest bat, wielded by junior catcher and clean-up hitter Kaila Shull, is undergoing her first slump of the year, hitting .133 over the past five games. But Shull believes the remedy will come in repetition.
“I just need to continue to keep swinging,” she said. “Take my hacks and put my work in until the game pays me back.”
One of the 25 finalists for the USA Softball Player of the Year Award, Shull still leads the Bruin team in runs batted in with 45, a .733 slugging percentage and is second in average (.390) and home runs (8).
Coach Kelly Inouye-Perez hopes that her recent line-up change, which saw sophomore outfielder Katie Schroeder being moved back to the top of the order last weekend, will pay dividends in the long run for the Bruins.
“Katie’s ability to come out and send a message right away along with her ability will be very important for the outcome of this weekend,” Inouye-Perez said.
Schroeder not only leads the team in batting average (.398), but her unique combination of speed (15 stolen bases on 16 attempts) and power (nine homers) poses matchup nightmares at the lead-off position.
“I’ve hit at the top all my life; moving down was actually the change,” Schroeder said. “But, I’ll do anything to help the team.”
With that, Schroeder went 4-for-7 in the lead-off slot, knocking in two runs on Sunday.
The Bruins will host the streaking No. 3 Washington Huskies (31-5, 4-2 Pac-10) this Friday and Saturday and will look to finish the homestand with a couple victories before beginning a grueling seven-game road trip in Corvallis, Ore., next Friday.
The Huskies are coming off a weekend in which they outscored their opponents 20-5 and completed a three-game sweep of the Arizona schools.
For their performances, Washington’s All-American senior Ashley Charters nabbed the Pac-10 Player of the Week award, while Husky junior Danielle Lawrie earned Pitcher of the Week.
“(Lawrie) has a lot of pitches to throw, and she has a lot of movement,” Inouye-Perez said. “She’s someone that if we go in swinging for the fences, it’s going to be difficult. Instead, our goal should be to wear her down and scrap.”
Lawrie had a brilliant outing on Friday in which she became the first pitcher since 2000 to no-hit Arizona, while striking out 12 Wildcat batters.
“Knowing her go-to pitch and knowing what she features is going to be important for us,” Schroeder said.
Charters continued her scorching hitting by extending her career-best hitting streak to 16 games, including a walk-off home run to defeat the Sun Devils on Sunday. Charters is now second in the Pac-10 with a .462 batting average after hitting .617 in her past nine games.
Shull said she welcomes that talent and believes the Bruins will be ready to take on the Huskies’ loaded roster.
“It’s going to be a great weekend,” Shull said. “It’s going to be a good competition, and we’re doing everything we can do to prepare for them, and I guarantee that they’re doing the same.”