Bruin softball closes Pac-10 season with series against the Ducks in Oregon

Dani Yudin doesn’t walk up to home plate ““ she struts.

She takes her time getting from the dugout to the batter’s box, and opposing pitchers are likely to be on the receiving end of a few hard stares along the way.

“I try to go slow because that’s the only time, the only control I have before I get up to the plate. So I might as well take my time and do things the way I want to do it,” the junior catcher and first baseman said. “And if I happen to give the pitcher a look or two, that’s fine.”

Starting today, Yudin will have to face one of the Pac-10’s best pitchers in sophomore Jessica Moore when the No. 12 Bruins (32-15, 8-10 Pac-10) face off against the No. 11 Ducks (37-13, 9-9) in Eugene, Ore.

Moore, whose earned run average of 1.58 is fourth-best in the Pac-10, will be a difficult test for the Bruins, who were able to muster only one run in their first two of three games against Arizona last weekend.

But the Bruins are coming off of a dominating Senior Day victory on Sunday against the Wildcats in which they won 5-1 and are hoping to carry that momentum with them to Eugene.

“Definitely (we have momentum). It was a huge win for us on Senior Day,” senior pitcher Donna Kerr said. “We kind of just needed to get out of our funk a little bit, and we were able to play the softball that we know we’re capable of playing.”

Kerr and freshman pitcher Jessica Hall have been, for the most part, the only two pitchers for the Bruins, as junior Aleah Macon is still day-to-day with a lingering right shoulder injury.

Even so, Kerr said that her level of fatigue heading into the last series of the regular season is no more than that of any other teammate with some aches and pains this late in the year.

Coach Kelly Inouye-Perez said that regardless of who is pitching, players on the Bruins’ roster are responsible for getting themselves ready to play.

“We pitch as a staff, we play as a team. Every single person on the team is responsible for what we call “˜preparing to be the one,’ and this past weekend was a great example of that,” Inouye-Perez said.

“When somebody goes down, then somebody steps up, that’s the way the program works.”

Last season, the Bruins swept the Ducks at home by a combined score of 31-8. This year, however, fans can expect the series to be much closer as the rankings and records of both teams are much more similar than they were in last year’s lopsided series.

“(Last year’s series) is not something that I personally think about,” Kerr said. “It’s a new team, it’s a new year. (Oregon) has been doing really well this year, so I just try to focus on us and what we’re doing well.”

So far, timely hitting and error-free defense have been key to UCLA’s season. If they are to win this weekend, the Bruins will have to accomplish both.