By Michael Sneag
Daily Bruin Contributor
The fun and games are over and it is all business now.
After the No. 2-ranked Bruins enjoyed a fun-filled alumni game
last Saturday, they are preparing to open the season by helping Cal
State Northridge to host the Early Bird Classic, and they are
focused.
“We’ve been training hard and didn’t really
worry about the (alumni game),” head coach Sue Enquist said.
“My clock and our schedule is based on what starts this
Friday.”
UCLA has four games scheduled, the first one being on Friday
against Louisiana-Monroe at 1:30 p.m. They follow that up with two
games on Saturday against San Diego State at 11 a.m. and Long Beach
State at 3 p.m. They conclude the tournament on Sunday against San
Jose State at 1 p.m.
Senior Amanda Freed and sophomore Keira Goerl are expected to
carry the pitching load for the year, and will probably pitch two
games each.
Their first opponent, Louisiana-Monroe, is a complete unknown;
the Bruins have never faced them. They finished with a 31-22
overall record playing in the Southland Conference and return only
nine players from last year’s team, but have been picked to
finish second in their conference.
No. 23-ranked San Diego State and Long Beach State are very
familiar faces, but the Bruins hold decisive edges in both series.
They are 49-2 all-time against SDSU, including two wins in last
year’s Regionals at Easton Stadium. LBSU hasn’t fared
much better as the Bruins have a 53-6 edge, including a 7-0 win
last year.
The team knows that although this is an early tournament, and it
won’t count toward league standings, it is still important to
get off to a good start to build the momentum they need to reach
the lofty goals that are expected of this year’s team.
“We are not focused on the end of the year because we have
so many things to work on at this point,” Enquist said.
“The team is learning how important discipline is and
worrying about keeping their core fundamentals intact.”