In Reply to: Softball now No. 4 posted by lafong on February 11, 2025 at 22:30:53
Per the UC Riverside game recap on uclabruins.com No. 5 Softball Goes Slugging in 10-2 Win over UC Riverside for the first time in program history we have five straight run-rule victories to open the season. We have had five straight run-rule victories before (2010 as one) but apparently not to start a season (and if the Fullerton game had not been postponed we might not have done it this year). Streak is likely over since our next game is at the Shriners Children's Clearwater Invitational in Florida against #9 Oklahoma State (all rankings are from NFCA/USA Today where we are #4). We also play Charlotte, #23 Kentucky, #14 Alabama and Virginia at Clearwater. Based on last year's RPI all should better than the 4 teams we've played (Nevada is probably the best we've played). The next week at the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic in Cathedral City, CA appears even tougher as all 6 games are against currently ranked teams (#16 Missouri, #18 Nebraska, #6 Tennessee, #24 Baylor, #13 Arkansas, #12 Duke).
Even though the competition has not been great and it's a small sample size our offense has been impressive . Our team batting average is .426 (#4 nationally) led by DP Savannah Pola at a ridiculous .692 (9 for 13) and CF Jessica Clements at .529 (9-17). 2 of our 4 starting freshmen have had nice starts to their careers - C Sofia Mujica (4-7, .571 with a WO HR) and LF Rylee Slimp (5-12, .417, 1 HR). Only freshmen 3B Kaniya Bragg (3-14, .214) and SS Aleena Garcia (2-12, .167) have not taken advantage of the less than elite pitching we've faced. Even more impressive our batting average with runners in scoring position (RISP) is higher at .465 (20-43) led by Pola (3-3), P Kaitlyn Terry (2-2), and C Jayla Castro (1-1) all batting a perfect 1.000. Our 3 hole hitter 1B Jordan Woolery (4-7, .571) and 4 hole hitter RF Megan Grant (3-6,.500 W/2 HR) also have good numbers. Oddly, the Bruin with the most RISP opportunities is leadoff hitter Clements (3-8, .375 with 2 WO). Our team OPS is 1.223 with 9 hitters over 1.000.
It appears that when Terry pitches she also bats (she also has our only pinch hit). Instead of not having a DP we keep Pola as DP and use her to bat for freshman catcher Maggie Daniel (who has caught all of Terry's 10 innings but has no at bats). It also appears that Mujica is our primary catcher as she caught all of freshman Addisen Fisher's 9 innings (which makes sense since they were batterymates in club ball) and all of Taylor Tinsley's 7 innings. When senior righthander Jada Cecil (in her first appearance since March 2024) relieved Fisher to start the top of the 6th against Riverside Castro replaced Mujica as cather. To date (and it has only been 5 games), each of our 4 pitchers have thrown to only 1 catcher (Terry/Daniel, Tinsley and Fisher/Mujica, Cecil/Castro). Wonder what happens when/if RS-Soph C/UTIL Alexis Ramirez comes back (I hope they don't play her in the outfield ever again).
Odd that Fisher doesn't have an AB (she raked in high school, especially as a senior with a .667 BA, .755 OBP, 1.583 SLG, for a 2.338 OPS, 17 HR in 72 AB). Maybe they're just easing her in to college ball. Terry only had 3 AB last year (and she had an even more ridiculous high school senior year with a .706 BA., .844 OBP, 2.029 SLG, for a 2.873 OPS, 23 HR in 68 AB and 55 BB) and we could have used her bat but maybe our lack of pitching forced us to have her focus on just pitching. Also odd that senior UTL Taylor Stephens has not appeared because she was in about 80% of our games last year. Only other roster player yet to see the field is junior DP/INF Ramsey Suarez (sadly soph C/UTL Addison Mettler is no longer on the roster...loved her backstory and was rooting for her). Looking at the HR celebrations at home plate (where the entire dugout comes out to gather) there appears to be at least 2 (and maybe up to 3 against IU Indianapolis) Bruins that are not in uniform. One was definitely Ramirez, one was probably Stephens, the third must be Suarez (wish UCLA would make injury reports like MLB or the NBA...heck, since WBB players can make as much or more in college through NIL maybe they should make injury reports public...but I digress).
Sorry for the long diatribe but have to distract myself from stressing over our upcoming WBB...