Softball to rely on underclassmen at Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic

The Ally Carda era, which ran from 2012 to 2015, is over. The days when the Bruins would lean heavily upon the two-time Pac-12 Player of the Year as a workhorse on the mound and as an offensive virtuoso in the box are gone.

UCLA softball has begun to form a new identity early on in its 2016 campaign. The Bruins are now a younger team that features a lineup and pitching rotation heavily composed of underclassmen.

“People will ask, ‘Are we rebuilding?’ and I like to use words like, ‘We are reloading,’” said coach Kelly Inouye-Perez.

This weekend at the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic, the youthful Bruins will face their best competition yet on the season.

“We have a lot of good competitors coming up,” said freshman Paige Halstead.

No. 7 UCLA (4-1) is set to square off against its first two ranked opponents of the year in No.16 University of Central Florida (4-2) and No. 4 LSU (4-1). Games against Notre Dame, Cal Poly and Pacific, several other strong squads, round out the weekend for UCLA.

The Bruins hope to hang around against a couple of the teams and their star hurlers.

On Friday, UCLA will be tasked with putting up runs against UCF senior pitcher Shelby Turnier, an NFCA All-American. She is 2-2 on the year but has held opposing hitters to a paltry .148 batting average.

Then, on Sunday, the Bruins will face an equal, if not greater, challenge in LSU sophomore Carley Hoover, who was First Team All-SEC as a freshman last season and has yet to allow an earned run in 11 innings this year.

UCLA will once again turn to sophomores Selina Ta’amilo and Johanna Grauer to limit the damage done by opposing hitters and keep the Bruins in the game against these powerful arms. At the Aggie Classic over President’s Day weekend, the two underclassmen monopolized time on the bump for UCLA, tossing all 34 innings. This trend should continue with freshman Rachel Garcia and redshirt junior Paige McDuffee still recovering from injuries.

Ta’amilo has been the highlight of the Bruins’ youth movement thus far, posting a 1.53 ERA en route to a 3-0 record over last weekend’s tournament. While she looks to build off the strong performance, Grauer will try to rebound from a rocky start to the year in which she saw her ERA skyrocket to 6.26.

“She wasn’t perfect this weekend. She can definitely get better,” Inouye-Perez said. “I look forward to giving her the ball though.”

Meanwhile, UCLA’s offense aims to stay hot regardless of whomever they may face on the mound.

Last weekend, senior third baseman Mysha Sataraka provided much of UCLA’s offensive fire power, driving in 10 of the team’s 28 runs during the tournament.

Halstead also showed well in her first action as a Bruin, batting .313 in the tournament and hitting her first career home run.

Sophomore second baseman Kylee Perez was impressed by how Halstead and the other freshmen performed.

“I think all of (the freshmen) showed grit at one point during that tournament,” Perez said. “They all stepped up to the plate at one point or another.”

So far, the young, revamped Bruins are off to a strong start in 2016, but this weekend’s tournament will be a barometer for just how far this team can potentially go this season.

Inouye-Perez has one goal in mind for her team.

“Not only do we want to get there,” Inouye-Perez said. “We want to win (the Women’s College World Series). That’s the goal.”

With a tough upcoming schedule that includes No. 1 Florida, a strong showing this weekend will bode well for UCLA moving forward into the coming weeks and beyond. Victories over ranked opponents would go a long way toward proving that the Bruins are actually legitimate championship contenders.