UCLA softball steps up to season opener in Hawaii

By and large, the UCLA softball team will be stepping out of its comfort zone by playing a season-opening tournament in Honolulu. But one Bruin is going home.

Sophomore infielder Mysha Sataraka, a native of Honolulu, will get the rare opportunity of playing in front of her parents, who were heavily responsible for her playing softball in the first place.

“They were probably the biggest influence,” Sataraka said. “If they could, at most, they’d be at every single game, every single practice. … They’re the biggest support group I have in softball, so I owe it all to them.”

Sataraka’s familiarity with the Honolulu area will be key for a Bruin softball team that is opening the season away from home for the first time since 2010.

“This is one of the few weekends where we’ve opened up away from home,” said assistant coach Kirk Walker. “We generally open up at home – (that) has been traditional. So that’s a little different to be on the road.”

Waiting for the No. 13 Bruins in Hawaii will be three other teams that are just as eager to get their seasons off on the right foot.

Delaware, which finished with a 35-22 record last season, will face the Bruins on Thursday night. Delaware is the only team in the tournament that failed to qualify for the NCAA tournament last year.

Starting as pitcher for the Bruins against Delaware will be junior Ally Carda, who looks to build on her impressive 2013 campaign.

“I have been working on an off-speed curve,” Carda said on Monday. “It’s just a little slower than my regular curve, but not as slow as my changeup. So I’m kind of going for three different speeds this year.”

Last year, even without that extra pitch, Carda managed to earn National Fastpitch Coaches Association Division I All-Region Team and All-Pac-12 honors by winning 23 games and holding opposing batters to a .208 batting average.

After the Delaware game on Thursday, the Bruins will face Hampton, which features a standout pitcher of its own.

Hampton junior Jailynn Jackson finished tied for 27th in the nation with 25 pitching victories in 2013 and will most likely face the Bruins during Friday’s game. The Bruins have prepared for the challenge by facing a great deal of live pitching during team practice.

“We are very fortunate that they get a lot of live (pitching). Not only off of our pitchers, but off of myself and (assistant coach) Lisa Fernandez,” Walker said.

The Bruins benefit not only from their experience against live pitching, but also from their offseason training, which has exposed them to high levels of mental and physical adversity.

“(This offseason), we had a huge army day,” Carda said. “The army day had a lot of just mental fatigue, a lot of physical too, but it just challenged us really hard mentally. So I think having that right in the beginning of season is going to help us know that nothing is too hard for this season (and that) we can do anything.”

The Bruins’ grit and endurance will be tested once again on Friday. After the Hampton game at 6 p.m. Pacific time, the Bruins will go right into playing the tournament’s host team – Hawai’i – at 10 p.m.

The Bruins’ track record suggests that the second game of the doubleheader should not be too much of a challenge. Last year, UCLA went 11-3 in the second games of same-day doubleheaders, and they also defeated Hawai’i 11-1 at a neutral site. In spite of this recent history, the Bruins continue to keep the focus on themselves, and not on the opponents or the circumstances.

“Our theme … all year long this year, has been about us and about one mission, and being focused on one mission, and team over self,” Walker said.