Team to try for error-free tournament
By Bob Costa
Feb. 20, 2003 9:00 p.m.
A nine-game winning streak, a team batting average of .386 and a
team ERA of 0.70. Everything has to be going right for the UCLA
softball team, right?
Not according to Sue Enquist, who is concerned about the
team’s defense late in games.
“Our maturity can be a weakness,” the team’s
head coach said. “In every game, we made our errors in the
second half of the game when we were ahead by five runs. Our goal
this weekend is to be errorless. I asked them: Can you do
it?”
Enquist has a point. In the Bruins’ (10-1) only loss this
year, to Cal State Fullerton, an error by center fielder Stephanie
Ramos led to one of the two runs allowed in the 2-0 loss.
Senior Toria Auelua attributed the loss to the fact that the
game was only the team’s second of the year.
“The loss was early in the season and no matter how much
we practice it doesn’t mean being in a game situation,”
Auelua said.
This weekend, the team will attempt to compete without error in
the Florida Atlantic Tournament against Florida Atlantic, Florida
International, Rutgers, Long Island and possibly Wisconsin.
There are no ranked teams in this tournament, which is a big
contrast from last week’s UNLV Classic, where the Bruins went
5-0 by defeating No. 4 Nebraska, No. 7 LSU and No. 20 South
Carolina by a combined score of 19-1.
Despite the less threatening competition of this week’s
tournament, Enquist does not believe the team will overlook any of
the opponents, especially Florida Atlantic, and will not play down
to the competition.
“FAU has some pitching. You can’t ignore
them,” Enquist said. “We’re going to have to come
out ready to play. We’ve got to focus on our standard, not
our opponent’s.”
“If our goal was only to be a little better than them, a
player might only have to make 7 out of 10 throws in practice. But
they have to stay focused, and make 10 out of 10,” added
Enquist.
The standards of the program were exemplified this week when
senior first baseman Tairia Mims was named the Pac-10 Player of the
Week.
Along with Mims, senior shortstop Natasha Watley and junior
pitcher Keira Goerl were announced as part of the U.S.A. Softball
Collegiate Player of the Year Watch List.
