Anjelica Selden has a tendency to make people forget.
After the freshman softball pitcher gave up four runs in 38
total innings over the weekend to send the Bruins to the Super
Regionals, it’s hard to remember the time she gave up five
runs in a single inning. And if she keeps posting numbers like she
did this weekend, fans might start to forget about her predecessor,
Keira Goerl.
In softball, a team can ride a single pitcher to the national
championship. UCLA did it the last two years with Goerl, and if
Selden’s performance in the regionals indicates anything,
it’s that the Bruins have essentially the same ingredients in
place this year.
The freshman, nicknamed Jelly, had 22 strikeouts and yielded
just five hits in a pair of must-win games for the Bruins on Sunday
against Cal State Fullerton. By the time the games had ended, the
Titans wanted to see Selden about as much as a sorority sister
wants to see a carbohydrate.
“Jelly’s performance was so impressive,” UCLA
coach Sue Enquist said. “She has ice in her veins.”
As incredible as her effort was, it’s going to be equally
expected in the next couple weeks. The Bruins will face Georgia in
a best-of-three series starting Friday, and you can bet that if
they plan on booking tickets to the College World Series, Selden
will have to continue being lights out.
“Softball’s very unique in that teams that have that
leadership tend to go very far,” Enquist said. “All the
teams that have dominant pitchers will end up facing each other by
the end.”
In last year’s College World Series, Goerl gave up only
two runs in UCLA’s last three games, while the Bruins managed
just seven runs themselves.
This year, Selden has that same potential to shutdown opponents.
In her first year in Westwood, she has already set the
single-season school record for strikeouts with 404. Enquist, who
has coached UCLA the last 17 years, can’t recall the last
time she’s been so reliant on a freshman.
“We treat her like a senior,” Enquist said.
“She’s had three years of experience this
year.”
Only a few weeks ago though, it didn’t seem like a good
idea to be so dependent on someone so young. In a two-week period
at the end of April, Selden gave up 21 runs and picked up four
losses. There were sequences where she would hit a batter, walk the
next one, and then give up a big hit that drove in the runs.
Enquist started Lisa Dodd twice the following weekend, leaving
Selden’s role as an ace in jeopardy.
But since then, Selden has righted the ship. Take the seventh
inning of the second game on Sunday for example. After giving up a
double that drove in Fullerton’s lone run, Selden struck out
Ariana Munoz and Tiffany Hoff to close out the game. Earlier in the
second inning, she hit the first batter to come up to the plate,
but eventually worked her way out of a two-on, one-out situation
unscathed.
“I’m getting used to it,” Selden said of the
pressure situations. “I’m focusing on the next batter
and not dwelling on a past error.”
Her mistakes are becoming more and more part of the past. And
it’s largely because she’s been so flawless in the
present.
E-mail Finley at afinley@media.ucla.edu