UCLA softball warms up for Pac-12 play with back-to-back doubleheaders

The Bruins will play four games in just over a 24-hour span.

No. 3 UCLA softball (11-1) will face UC Santa Barbara (3-10) on Thursday and UNLV (11-4) on Friday in two consecutive days of doubleheaders. Ahead of the Bruins’ second set of back-to-back doubleheaders this year, redshirt senior utility Bubba Nickles said the team has been focusing on doing extra conditioning to prepare itself for the physical and mental toll of playing so many games.

“Our coaches do a good job of giving us practices that are challenging, and even our strength coach, she really makes it to where we do extra after our workouts, like extra conditioning,” Nickles said. “That definitely helps, not only physically, but it helps mentally because it helps us to learn how to persevere when we’re tired or we feel fatigue.”

Nickles said the special training is also helping UCLA prepare for the start of conference play – which begins next weekend – where the Bruins will be playing four games a weekend, often against ranked opponents.

Coach Kelly Inouye-Perez said depth, especially in the pitching rotation, is another essential part of being able to handle the demands of their schedule. All four UCLA pitchers will be available to play this week after redshirt senior pitcher/first baseman Rachel Garcia returned from injury to record three hitless innings Sunday.

The pitching staff has a combined ERA of 1.59 over 75 innings and has held opponents to a .153 batting average so far this year.

“It’s confidence knowing that we have more depth,” Inouye-Perez said. “When your depth is healthy, and you have a pitcher like (Garcia) that joins the roster, then that definitely gives confidence to a team.”

UCLA’s first opponent of the weekend will be UC Santa Barbara, which lost its first five games of the season but has won two of its last four, including a 3-1 win over Stanford.

In the victory – the Gauchos’ first over a Pac-12 opponent since 2012 – UC Santa Barbara was led by pitcher Emily Schuttish, who pitched the full seven innings. Schuttish has pitched almost 40% of UC Santa Barbara’s innings, and her 1.08 ERA makes her the only pitcher on the Gaucho roster with an ERA below 3.50.

In contrast, UNLV has started 11-4, though Friday’s doubleheader will be the team’s first road games. The Rebels have mercy-ruled their opponents five times this season and are averaging almost six runs a game. Redshirt sophomore pitcher/first baseman Megan Faraimo said even when facing a team known for its offense, the UCLA pitching staff tries to focus its strategy more on its own development.

“We have to pay attention not so much to how many runs they’re scoring, but how can we stop that as a pitching staff,” Faraimo said. “We just focus on competing with ourselves, so (we’re) getting better every day.”

The Bruins last faced the Gauchos in 2019, winning 6-0 to extend their current 12-game winning streak over UC Santa Barbara. UCLA also has an active 13-game winning streak against UNLV, though the last time the teams played was in 2014.

Inouye-Perez said the challenge the Bruins will face this week in their opponents and in the tight scheduling will give them the opportunity to work on consistency ahead of Pac-12 play.

“It’s going to be a little bit challenging because it’s a long day, so we’re going to look to be as consistent as we can with our energy,” Inouye-Perez said. “We’re finding consistency and really trying to hit our stride.”