Friday, April 24, 1998
Will UCLA’s wins lead to Cardinal downfall?
Bruin defeat of Oregon State prepares for Stanford
confrontation
By Kimberly Edds
Daily Bruin Contributor
Maybe this weekend will be the weekend that the UCLA softball
team can get that first game of the doubleheader.
It could happen, especially if the team is still riding high on
the momentum of its exciting bottom-of-the-seventh 6-5 win over
Oregon State in Game Two Sunday.
The unranked Bruins’ next potential victims are No. 21
California (28-19, 6-8 PAC-10) and No. 12 Stanford (29-12, 8-8
PAC-10) when they meet the Golden Bears and the Cardinal in
conference play this weekend.
Cal has won four out of their last six games, sweeping both San
Jose State and No. 12 Arizona State, but the Bears dropped both
games to top-ranked Arizona on Saturday.
Bruin pitchers will have to control Cal shortstop Paige Bowie at
the plate if they want to win. Bowie, who has both speed and great
slapping ability, has also started to show that she possesses power
too. In the four games over the weekend against Arizona and Arizona
State, she had the first two home runs of her career.
Bowie has eight RBI in her last six games. She is also tied for
third on the team for RBI, despite having missed the first 14 games
of the season because of commitments with the Cal basketball
team.
Despite bringing a three-game losing streak into the series
against UCLA, Stanford will be quite an obstacle for the
Bruins.
One of the Cardinal’s biggest strengths is their pitching, with
two returning starters from last year, Becky Blevins and Marcy
Crouch. Blevins pitched 28 complete games in 33 appearances in the
1997 season.
Crouch presents a double threat to the Bruins, as she is second
on the team in batting (.323) and hits (41). She has been
struggling of late, however, going 0-for-11 over the weekend.
The Bruins will have to bring their bats when they travel up
north. One of their biggest and most reliable bats is UCLA first
baseman Kim Wuest, who is batting .402 with 11 home runs.
Besides Wuest, the Bruins have also seen the power of shortstop
Nicole Odomm and catcher/DH Marin Noack lately. Odom and Noack both
blasted homers in the doubleheader against Oregon State Sunday.
The Bruins will face the Bears on Saturday at Berkeley, and the
Cardinal on Sunday at Stanford.