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No.1 Softball drenched in storm of success

Aiming to continue streak, team will face Arizona State

By Brent Boyd

Daily Bruin Contributor

After sweeping through eight games in Florida en route to the Speedline/South Florida Classic title last weekend, the UCLA softball team returned to Southern California only to be washed away by rain. Wednesday's matchup with Long Beach State was cancelled, their third rainout of the season.

UCLA (20-2 overall, 3-1 Pacific 10) will look to continue its 12-game winning streak and try to maintain their hold on first place in a noon matchup with Arizona State today at Easton Stadium. The Sun Devils open their portion of the conference schedule having won seven of their last eight games, to improve their overall record to 12-6.

Arizona State is led by junior Tammy Lohmann, who is currently hitting .491, and 1995 All-Pac-10 first-team honoree Alysea Johnson, who is batting .393 and leads the team with 10 doubles.

But the Bruins will try to counter this offensive attack with the help of Pac-10 Pitcher of the Week, B'Ann Burns. Last weekend, Burns improved her record to 12-1 and captured tournament Most Valuable Pitcher honors, when she threw four complete game shutouts and also earned a save. During the last day of the single-elimination tournament, Burns threw three consecutive seven-inning games, and allowed no unearned runs.

The Bruin lineup is be led by senior second baseman Kelly Howard, who kept her average at .500 by going 13-for-26 in the tourney, including a home run and two doubles. The two doubles increased her career total to 45, and left her just one away from tying UCLA career leader Jennifer Brundage.

Over spring break, the Bruins continue their longest home stand of the year with a non-conference game versus San Diego State on March 24, sandwiched between two key conference matchups with Oregon (March 23) and Oregon State (March 26). All games start at 1 p.m.

Following the home stand, the team travels to Tucson on March 29, to take on No. 3 Arizona in a rematch of last year's national championship game. The Wildcats have stormed out of the gate at 21-2, and will be ready for revenge against the Bruins, who won four of their five meetings last season.

"Arizona lost a lot of power from last year, and has turned into more of a slap hitting team," said UCLA co-head coach Sharron Backus, who reached her 400th victory in last year's title game win over the Wildcats. "They are always good, but we can't catch ourselves looking ahead to this game. All Pac-10 games are important."

An understatement exemplified by last season, when UCLA topped Arizona in three out four regular-season games, but missed the conference championship by half a game.

If the Bruins do manage to get through spring break without a conference loss, they will be in command of the Pac-10 race, and well on their way to bringing the conference title back to Westwood for the first time since 1993.Comments to webmaster@db.asucla.ucla.edu