No. 12 UCLA softball falters, counting three straight losses against No. 5 Arizona State
By the Numbers:
18- Freshman pitcher Ally Carda and sophomore pitcher Jessica Hall combined to issue 18 walks to ASU during the three games. By comparison, Arizona State allowed just six walks in the series.
15- UCLA finished the series with more strikeouts (15) than hits (12) struggling to score runs in the desert.
12- The Bruins left 12 runners on base struggling to bring runners home when they did reach safely.
By Tyler Drohan
April 9, 2012 12:27 a.m.
Although UCLA softball’s recent 12-game winning streak might have indicated the team was ready to sprint to the finish line, its recent road trip to Arizona State made it clear its season is anything but finished.
In fact, the season resembles something of a marathon with the Bruins slated to play 54 regular seasons games before postseason play gets underway.
Facing their highest-ranked opponent so far this season, the No. 12 Bruins struggled in nearly every facet of the game getting swept in the three-game Pac-12 Conference series.
“It really does remind me of that team in 2010 because the season’s so long and the fact that we actually get a chance to play again every single day; you’ve got to keep telling your teammates that we’re going to get through this, that we’re going to figure it out,” senior utility Andrea Harrison said, referencing the team’s most recent championship season.
The Bruins were mercy-ruled for the first time this season losing 9-1 in six innings on Thursday and again losing 9-1 in only five innings on Friday.
“This team isn’t playing at its full potential yet and I can’t wait to see what happens when we do … you just have to remind everyone that the season’s a grind,” Harrison said.
UCLA (25-10, 2-4 Pac-12) jumped out to their first lead of the series in the finale on Saturday following freshman infielder Stephany LaRosa’s RBI single in the first and Harrison’s solo homer in the third, but the Bruins eventually fell 4-2 to the No. 5 Sun Devils.
“Outcome-wise, we didn’t get to walk away with great successes but we definitely got stronger throughout the weekend and showed a little bit more fight,” coach Kelly Inouye-Perez said of the Bruins. “(Saturday) was a better battle but we still weren’t able to come up with the timely hit.”
Arizona State (35-4, 7-1) scored three times in the fourth, tying the score at 2 on a bases-loaded walk and taking a 3-2 advantage following a wild pitch.
“If you look at what happened, we beat ourselves by our decisions in the box, from our pitching errors and definitely a lot of our defensive mindless errors that happened,” redshirt senior outfielder Katie Schroeder said.
After winning their first two games of Pac-12 play, the Bruins’ four straight losses leave them in seventh place in the conference.
“We’re not playing great softball and if you don’t play great softball you’re not going to be able to get an outcome and we’ve fallen short in several areas,” Inouye-Perez said.
“We have to look with optimism knowing we still have several games in the Pac-12 to be prepared for the end and that’s our goal: to be able to be prepared to be our best at the end and right now we’re not playing our best softball.”
