When the Oregon softball team came to Los Angeles last weekend, UCLA had one goal:
Stop the Ducks’ winning streak at 35.
The Bruins handed Oregon their first two losses of the season last Friday and Saturday but Oregon bounced back in the third game, 11-4.
The first two games against Oregon were all about the pitching of redshirt freshman Rachel Garcia.
She held the hard-hitting Ducks to five hits in Friday’s 2-0 win.
The next day she came in from the bullpen in the seventh inning to relieve starter Selina Ta’amilo. She shut down Oregon for another three innings. The Bruins won 1-0 on a wild pitch in the bottom of the ninth.
This weekend UCLA is on the road, at Oregon State today and Saturday.
Tuesday they return home against Cal State Fullerton. Next weekend they are home against California, Friday and Saturday at 7, Sunday at 5.
The 28-10 Bruins are 4-5 in the Pac-12.
They still are looking for an effective combination of pitching, hitting and solid defense.
“We won the first two games against Oregon because of our defense,” said Coach Kelly Inouye-Perez, in her 11th year.
After UCLA was swept by Utah in a three-game series in mid-March, Coach Inouye-Perez and her staff decided to make changes.
“We did not start the Pac-12 the way we wanted to,” she said. “We had a lot of things going on. We went to work, though, to get the best out of our players.”
Right now the Bruins are trying to focus on playing good softball. “We are still working on our consistency,” she said.
“We are trying to make a run at the national championship.”
Mr. Finley may be contacted at sfinley50@aol.com
Mr. Laase may be contacted at GMLaase@aol.com