Bruin softball batters Matadors, ties record for UCLA doubles

With one mighty swing of the bat, junior outfielder B.B. Bates cashed in a double for UCLA softball.

And it wasn’t the first double of the day for the Bruins.

Bates’ bases-loaded double in the bottom of the fifth inning drove in the final two runs of the game and concluded UCLA’s assault on both visiting Cal State Northridge and the school record books. The No. 15 Bruins left the visiting Matadors figuratively bloodied and bruised, tying a school record with eight doubles in the 10-3 non-conference win at Easton Stadium.

Bates’ two-run double nearly ended the game in the fifth for the Bruins. Needing three runs to enact the mercy rule on the Matadors, the junior outfielder’s double went over the center fielder’s head, but a great throw by the cutoff to the plate nailed senior utility Andrea Harrison for the third out of the inning.

“Of course I wouldn’t want to go up to bat just trying to swing it hard so we can end the game, but just going up there, my approach was to get a base hit,” Bates said.

“My approach … was just slowing the game down and working on getting a pitch that I can hit. In that situation, I battled and got a pitch to hit,” she added.

After giving up two runs in the top of the first to CSUN (8-32), UCLA opened the game with three straight doubles to tie the score at 2.

Redshirt senior outfielder Katie Schroeder led off with a double and was followed by doubles from freshman third baseman Stephany LaRosa and Harrison.

“I didn’t know that,” Schroeder said of the team’s record-tying performance. “That’s awesome because doubles mean we’re hitting gap-to-gap, which is what we like to do.”

“Obviously, this team can go yard, but (Wednesday), we didn’t do that much; we kind of just stayed gap-to-gap, but that’s a cool stat.”

UCLA (30-12) took the lead for good in the bottom of the second. Schroeder followed sophomore second baseman Talee Snow’s double with her second of the game to take a 3-2 lead.

Bates later followed with a two-out, two-run double to the right to make the score 5-2. Senior first baseman Dani Yudin added an RBI single up the middle to make it 6-2 after two innings.

“They came out and got tested right away, which is great,” coach Kelly Inouye-Perez said of the Bruins. “You always like to be able to battle back and answer back, so it provided a great opportunity for us to continue to just play the game.”

The Bruins added two more runs in the bottom of the third on back-to-back home runs. Snow smacked a two-out, solo homer to left field, and Schroeder followed with a towering shot to right field that hung up in the tall trees. Overall, the Bruins drove in seven of their 10 runs with two outs.

Schroeder finished 3-for-3 with two doubles, one home run and two runs batted in. Bates went 3-for-4 with two doubles and four RBI.

“Our focus is being able to swing at strikes and being able to have a quality two-strike approach, and when they do that, I believe that there isn’t a pitcher in the country that can stop the lineup for the entire game,” Inouye-Perez said of the offense.

On deck

UCLA will conclude its four-game home stand with a three-game Pac-12 Conference series against Utah.

The visiting Utes (23-18) have struggled in their first season in the conference, having reached the halfway mark of the Pac-12 season winless at 0-12. The Bruins are fifth in the conference standings at 6-6.

Inouye-Perez is one win shy of reaching 250 career wins as the UCLA coach, but believes the focus should not be on her.

“It’s all about, for us, the process so that we can be our best at the end,” Inouye-Perez said.

“I’ll take the lessons learned during the season to be able to prepare for the end. That’s what we’re all about, and I think we’re heading in the right direction. It’s not about the wins and losses always.”