Go Joe Bruin
Fansided

UCLA Softball is nearly perfect heading into Pac-12 play

By Mike Regalado

8 Apr 1998: General view of a bat and glove that belong to Mark McGwire of the St. Louis Cardinals during a game against the Colorado Rockies at the Coors Field in Denver, Colorado. The Cardinals defeated the Rockies 13-9. Mandatory Credit: Brian Bahr /Allsport
8 Apr 1998: General view of a bat and glove that belong to Mark McGwire of the St. Louis Cardinals during a game against the Colorado Rockies at the Coors Field in Denver, Colorado. The Cardinals defeated the Rockies 13-9. Mandatory Credit: Brian Bahr /Allsport /
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The UCLA softball team’s momentum from the non-conference portion of the schedule is propelling them into Pac-12 play behind their bats and their improvements in pitching.

Many knew that the UCLA softball team was going to be good, but no one expected that they would be this good. The Bruins have done nothing short of dominated early in this 2019 season and is doing so behind a solid batting rotation and some depth with pitching.

With the Bruins closing out the non-conference schedule with a record of 22-1 and a no. 2 ranking in the D1 Softball Top 25 this weekend, UCLA is turning some heads among the nation’s elite and is starting to get some chatter about national championship aspirations.

And why not? UCLA has been rolling through opponent after opponent since the season started in mid-February with their only blemish coming at the hands of Michigan who beat the Bruins 3-1 just over a week ago.

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But other than that, UCLA has been putting 7.17 runs per game on their opponents (9th in the nation). The is a result of head coach Kelly Inouye-Perez’s skillfulness in putting this team together as she has a nice mixture of upperclasswomen and youngsters to balance this team out. The Bruins’ batters are led by sophomore Briana Perez who is second on the team with a .444 batting average and leads the Bruins with 36 hits and 29 runs. She is also third on the team in RBIs (20).

Junior Bubba Nickles is second on the team in hits (27) but leads the Bruins in home runs (8) and RBIs (26). The Bruins’ third offensive weapon is redshirt sophomore Aaliyah Jordan who is 4th on the team with a .397 batting average. She also has 27 hits, 24 RBIs and 4 homers. It is quite impressive, but its not even their strength.

As a team, UCLA is 3rd in the nation with an earned run average of 1.10. That comes from a combination of the Bruins’ three aces sophomore Holly Azevedo (1.97), freshman Megan Fairamo (0.94), and redshirt junior Rachel Garcia (0.64) who is in the top 10 of lowest ERAs and most strikeouts (112) in the nation.

Last season, the Bruins ran out of gas in the NCAA Women’s College World Series, primarily due to the lack of depth. With these three elite pitchers on the roster, UCLA now has the potential to win the Pac-12 and get a 1-seed in the this year’s WCWS, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

With the Bruins pitching in top form and their bats ready, UCLA should be able to power through the conference. This Friday we get to see how likely that is as the Bruins have their first Pac-12 series up at Washington.