As rich of a history as the UCLA men’s basketball program has had, it can be argued its softball team has been even better. The Bruins have won 12 national championships — the most in the country.
This year, UCLA (25-11, 2-7 Pac-12) isn’t the same caliber as those national championship teams, but it will still be a difficult challenge for Utah (14-19-1, 1-8 Pac-12) this weekend. The teams will square off three times in two days at Utah Softball Stadium, starting with a doubleheader tomorrow.
The Utes are five games below .500 and need to string some wins together if they want to qualify for the postseason.
“I don’t think it is pressure,” said infielder Jackie Sweet of the urgency needed to win games. “It’s exciting that we have the opportunity to try and [qualify]. So I think we just got to go out there … and play our game and get as many wins as we can.”
Not allowing UCLA’s Ally Carda to have a good weekend will be key for the Utes’ chances of winning. Carda has appeared in the circle more than any other Bruin, her record is 16-6 and she has over half of UCLA’s total strikeouts.
But it’s not just pitching where Carda succeeds. She is also second on the Bruins roster in home runs, RBIs and on-base percentage. Additionally, she leads the team with the fewest number of strikeouts at the plate.
A second thing the Utes will need to limit if they hope to beat UCLA is the number of errors they commit. Against Oregon, Utah committed eight errors in three games. After the series, Utah head coach Amy Hogue said part of the problem was the difference between the Ducks’ infield and the one at Utah Softball Stadium.
“Playing at home helps because we know our field and our dirt is a whole lot different than [Oregon’s] dirt,” Hogue said. “So I think we’ll have less errors in the infield [versus UCLA].”
Sweet agreed with her coach but also said Utah needs to do other things to limit errors.
“We just need to stay calm and play better on defense and not let one error turn into three runs,” she said. “On the opposite side, when we get on base on an error or something, we need to capitalize on other teams’ mistakes.”
Hitting has also been a problem for Utah against Pac-12 teams. In every conference game except one — the team’s win against Arizona — Utah hasn’t scored more than five runs.
Sweet is one player who has been hot during conference play. She has hit .500 over the last 10 games and has connected on three home runs. She credited her success to hitting early in the count and being aggressive.
Despite Utah’s struggles in conference, Sweet said the team will continue to get better with every game.
“We’re not looking past UCLA because UCLA is still a really good team, but I think every series we have is going to prepare us for the next one,” she said.
Saturday’s first game is scheduled to begin at noon.