UCLA softball hopes to ride hot streak into Oregon series

UCLA softball’s road to the Women’s College World Series winds through familiar territory this weekend.

On Saturday, the No.12 Bruins will travel north to take on the No. 5 Oregon Ducks in a three-game super regional series.

Earlier this season, UCLA stole two out of three games on the road against Oregon, including a dominant 16-5 run-rule win in Game 1.

Sitting at 2-2-1 in Pac-12 play and struggling to find early-season consistency, UCLA turned around its season with the series against Oregon.

The Bruins have only lost two games since and currently ride a nine-game win streak into this weekend.

“We’ve had a phenomenal seven weeks of playing great softball,” said coach Kelly Inouye-Perez.

A large reason for UCLA’s metamorphosis is improved pitching.

“They’ve just gotten better from the start of the season to the end,” Inouye-Perez said. “Both (sophomore) Selina (Ta’amilo) and (sophomore) Johanna (Grauer) have improved.”

Grauer, whose ERA at one point topped out at 6.21, settled in the last couple of months and now has an ERA of 3.90 while leading the team in innings pitched.

The return of redshirt junior Paige McDuffee also seemed to rejuvenate the staff.

With a third arm in the rotation and a lighter workload, Ta’amilo is allowing fewer earned runs, giving up three or less in all but two appearances since McDuffee’s return.

UCLA’s pitchers will come up against an elite offense in Oregon this weekend though.

The Ducks’ offense ranks first in the country with a .360 batting average thanks in large part to senior outfielder Koral Costa and junior infielder Nikki Udria, who are each hitting above .420.

In addition to getting on base at a high clip, Oregon is a team that heavily features the long ball, ranking second in the country with 93 home runs this season.

“I really have to focus on hitting my spots and executing pitches because they are one of the best hitting teams in the country,” Grauer said.

And as powerful as the Ducks’ lineup is, their pitching staff is equally potent.

Oregon has the 18th-highest team ERA and a true ace in senior Cheridan Hawkins.

Hawkins is 23-3 on the year, baffling hitters with her dropball and owning the fourth-highest strikeouts per seven innings.

Bruin hitters have had success this year against the Ducks’ arms, namely Hawkins, who they tattooed for seven runs back in April.

“We really attacked Cheridan (Hawkins) and (freshman Megan) Kleist,” junior shortstop Delaney Spaulding said. “That’s something we took away from that series and need to bring into this weekend.”

Spaulding has been red-hot as of late, homering four times in UCLA’s last four games, including a pair of go-ahead shots at regionals.

Third baseman Mysha Sataraka and centerfielder Allexis Bennett have also been effective this season, reaching base early and often. The seniors are first and third respectively on the team in on-base percentage.

Together, the trio set the tone for Inouye-Perez’s offense.

“Our approach is going to be aggressive,” said Inouye-Perez. “Hitting is contagious.”

Despite the daunting task of trying to knock off the Ducks and return to a second straight Women’s College World Series, Bruin players aren’t second-guessing themselves.

“We have momentum going into Oregon. We just need to go for it and, hopefully, we’ll come away with the W,” said Spaulding.

UCLA opens its best-of-three series against Oregon Saturday night.