The No. 2 women’s softball team sure looks like it’s ready for Pac-10 play.
The Bruins went 5-0 on the road for the third time in a row in this weekend’s Long Beach Invitational, improving their record to 25-2. It was the last nonconference tournament of the regular season. Pac-10 play starts at the end of the month.
Coach Kelly Inouye-Perez’s team hopes it can keep its 19-game winning streak alive through two more series and into the beginning of the conference season.
“I think we’re absolutely ready for Pac-10 season,” Inouye-Perez said. “We’ve really learned a lot about ourselves, and we’ve been able to really build something special, and the girls have been able to prepare themselves for that Pac-10 season.”
This weekend started off strong with senior pitcher Anjelica Selden in the circle, throwing her second straight one-hitter against No. 24 Virginia Tech on Friday. The only run of the game came in the bottom of the third inning when senior Krista Colburn capitalized on a Hokie defensive error to finish a 1-0 win.
Later in the day, freshman GiOnna DiSalvatore hit in all three runs of the game against Notre Dame, to bring the Bruins to a 3-2 win. Freshman Donna Kerr started and went through five and one third innings giving up two runs off of four hits. Sophomore Megan Langenfeld shut the Fighting Irish down in relief, setting down all five batters she faced.
“We just have a lot of confidence right now,” Langenfeld said. “It’s that bring-on-anybody mentality. We’ll go at you from our defense to our offense to our pitching ““ just anything.”
This confident mentality stayed with the Bruins through Saturday’s game against Rutgers, batting very strong in a 9-0 win off of nine hits. Freshman Katie Schroeder stepped up on the offensive side with four hits in the game, while Langenfeld and Kerr held the Scarlet Knights to only three hits total.
Kerr threw a season-high 15 strikeouts against No. 8 Northwestern, and Langenfeld roped a 250-foot home run to help continue the Bruins’ winning streak with a 2-0 win on Sunday morning. The Wildcats dropped their record to 12-6, and the Bruins geared up for their next game against Long Beach State later that day.
The 49ers were not willing to give the Bruins an easy game, pushing them into two international tiebreaker extra innings.
“We definitely have to keep pushing in our intensity through the game and day,” DiSalvatore said. “We can’t just expect to coast through every game.”
Freshman Samantha Camuso came through big at the bottom of the eighth, doubling in freshman Grace Murray to give UCLA a 1-0 win and another perfect weekend record.
The Bruins face two unranked teams ““ Cal State Fullerton and UC Santa Barbara ““ before starting the Pac-10 season against Oregon State on March 28.
The conference slate will only bring more challenges for UCLA. The Bruins must battle four other top 25 teams: No. 1 Arizona State, No. 7 Stanford, No. 10 Arizona and No. 24 Washington. But with such a dominant start to the season, the squad seems to be capable of handling the pressure.
“We maybe aren’t at championship level right now, but with a little fine-tuning, we will be soon,” Langenfeld said. “The Pac-10 is a crazy conference where anybody can beat anybody, but I think we’ll be ready.”