The Bruins are undefeated and the top-ranked team in the nation,
but for one week they will not be the featured squad in a preseason
tournament.
With the U.S. Olympic Softball team playing five exhibitions
over the weekend, other teams can only be secondary
attractions.
Continuing the trend of the past few weekends, the Bruins (9-0)
will again face a pair of highly ranked teams. This weekend, the
games will be part of the Palm Springs Softball Classic.
On Friday night, they will face a soaring 11-1 Tennessee team
that has moved up six spots to No. 12 in the latest poll.
Then, in its last game of the tournament, UCLA will play against
No. 6 Georgia (6-0).
The Bruins will also face unranked Baylor (6-3), Northwestern
(4-1) and Penn State (0-0) over the weekend.
“We can’t take any team for granted, whether
they’re in our conference or not,” senior Claire Sua
said.
The tournament field has 17 collegiate teams, including
highly-ranked conference rivals Arizona and Stanford.
While the coaching staff may do a little scouting of conference
competition, the team will not spend much time watching the rest of
the tournament.
“We don’t watch any other games,” center
fielder Stephanie Ramos said. “You don’t want to be
sitting out in the sun all day, so we just do our own
thing.”
Since they play on Friday, the Bruins have had a short practice
week, rendering them unable to work on their biggest weakness:
defense.
UCLA made 10 errors in its first two tournaments, and over half
of the runs the Bruins allowed were unearned.
Because of the tournament’s Friday start and the
unexpected rain this week, there was little time to actually get on
the field.
Coach Sue Enquist told her team to try to keep defense separate
from offense, so defensive failures don’t cause an offensive
slump.
The team was able to keep the two separate last weekend, when it
swept five games on the way to winning the UNLV Classic.
The Bruin bats were on fire as the squad hit 12 home runs,
certainly helping offset their defensive woes.
“It’s just impressive that this young club can do
that,” Enquist said.