Despite winning the Stacy Winsberg Memorial Tournament last
weekend, the No. 1 UCLA softball team is looking to smooth out some
rough patches today against the UC Riverside Highlanders.
The Bruins’ scored 16 runs over the four games of the
tournament. But the freshman-filled bottom of their lineup
struggled, and many sacrifice bunts were popped up in the air.
This, combined with a lack of clutch hitting, contributed to a loss
against Cal State Fullerton that will probably cost the Bruins
their No.1 ranking this week.
Head coach Sue Enquist is not concerned.
“We’re normally a much better bunting team than that
and usually bunting should be there for us. The bottom half of the
lineup is much better than we showed this weekend and I look to see
them really pick it up tomorrow against Riverside.”
One of the Bruins looking to pick it up against Riverside is
senior third baseman Toria Auelua. She had a tough weekend
offensively, especially in the loss against Fullerton where she
left eight runners on base. Despite this Auelua knows that it is
the beginning of the season and there is some time to shake off the
rust and improve in the clutch.
“It was a good game (against Fullerton) to figure out
where we all stood in general offensively.” Auelua said.
“Since then we have worked on a lot of things with my swing
and a lot of aspects offensively,”
The Highlanders, despite not having played a game this year,
have problems that dwarf the Bruins offensive struggles.
Riverside is coming off a 15-44 season last year and returns All
Big West second baseman Karli Burneleit. The Highlanders had high
hopes of finishing in the top half of the Big West conference.
However, that dream might be in jeopardy. The team was surprised to
learn Monday of head coach Rachel Miller-Reif’s immediate
resignation for personal reasons. Assistant coach Mike Smith will
take over on an interim basis.