EDWARD LIN/Daily Bruin Senior Lupe
Brambila slides into second base in a game against
Washington earlier this season. The Bruins face the UC Riverside
Highlanders today in an attempt to perfect their non-conference
record. SOFTBALL vs. Today 1 p.m. (doubleheader)
Riverside, CA
By Andrew Borders
Daily Bruin Reporter The No. 1 UCLA Bruins (44-4) reached the
halfway point of the conference season last weekend, and are
marking the occasion with an attempt to perfect their
non-conference record with two wins over UC Riverside (11-34-1)
today. UCLA has had perfect non-conference records only twice, in
1992 and 1999, but could set a record for non-conference wins at
39-0 with a sweep today. Coincidentally, the Bruins won the
national title in both those years. Why Riverside? And why in the
middle of the conference season? Most major schools play smaller,
local programs for midweek games, but the fellow UC asked that two
doubleheaders be played, not just one. The first of them took place
March 6. “When we scheduled them, they would not play just a
single doubleheader,” said UCLA Head Coach Sue Enquist.
“If you look at the Pac-10 teams, everybody does it (play
non-conference games at midseason), but it’s unusual for
us.” In fact, almost every Pac-10 team schedules
non-conference games in the thick of the conference race, all
against West Coast teams from smaller schools. Only Arizona State
does not have a non-conference game during the conference season.
Enquist added that Riverside’s availability forced her to
schedule them for today, two days before a huge weekend against No.
3 Stanford and No. 4 Cal. In that first meeting against Riverside,
the Bruins defeated the Highlanders 10-0 and 4-0 at Easton Stadium,
which included a perfect game by freshman pitcher Keira Goerl.
Riverside’s strength lies more in pitching than hitting.
Freshman Jenell Jackson (5-10) leads the team in ERA at 3.69, while
junior Monique Baeza (4-17) is close behind at 3.78. At the plate,
no Highlander is above .261, the average held by sophomore Lauren
Sigler. “The midweek games are really good for us because
they give us something to practice on,” said freshman Claire
Sua. To Riverside, that must sound like something a boxing champion
says about his competitor before a tune-up fight. As for the
Bruins, junior Stacey Nuveman ended Sua’s brief reign atop
the UCLA hitting charts, as Nuveman is now at .427 and Sua at .419.
UCLA’s two likely starting pitchers are Goerl and senior
Courtney Dale. Goerl suffered her first loss of the season to
Oregon State last Friday, but still posts a strong record at 17-1
with a 1.13 ERA. Dale is 5-0 with a 1.14 ERA. In addition, the
Bruins find out today if they are still the No. 1 team in the
nation going into the weekend. Arizona climbed to the top of the
Pac-10 standings with a sweep last weekend and could knock the
Bruins out of the top spot. Also notable is tonight’s game
between Arizona and Arizona State in Tempe. If the Wildcats lose,
Stanford heads into the weekend matchup against UCLA as the leader
of the conference.