Daily Bruin File Photo Senior Stacey
Nuveman takes a swing.
By Vytas Mazeika
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Last season, the UCLA softball team was relatively young, often
starting four sophomores in the infield. A year later, after a
third consecutive NCAA championship game appearance, the maturity
is starting to show.
The infield is still intact and the outfield has reloaded. The
dominant pitching is back and the catcher, 2000 Olympian Stacey
Nuveman, is the most dominant slugger in college softball.
Needless to say, the No. 2 Bruins expect to improve upon last
year’s runner-up finish when their season starts on
Friday.
“We lost a couple of key people, but we had so much depth
last year we have people jumping right in,” senior ace Amanda
Freed said.
The offense should be solid from top to bottom. Shortstop
Natasha Watley, the team’s leadoff hitter, batted .409 last
season and led the Pac-10 with 52 stolen bases. Freed, who will
also play centerfield whenever Keira Goerl is in the circle, along
with first baseman/catcher Tairia Mims and third baseman Toria
Auelua all had very good summers with Team USA. They look to
improve upon their 2001 campaigns ““ a tough task when you
consider performances like Mims’ 17 home runs and 71 runs
batted in.
Freshman first baseman/designated player Claire Sua had a solid
freshman campaign, enhanced by a team-best six RBI in the
Women’s College World Series.
Click Here to See Larger Image
The development of the supporting cast brings forth the
question: will opposing teams still feel the need to pitch around
Nuveman?
En route to her second Pac-10 Player of the Year award, Nuveman
compile impressive stats, including Pac-10 bests in batting average
(.440), slugging percentage (.873). She is also the NCAA’s
career leader in home runs (70) and RBI (235), and is only 16 home
runs shy of breaking the NCAA mark.
Capable of such gaudy numbers, Nuveman was walked 77 times
““ 28 of those intentionally.
Nuveman understands teams don’t want to pitch to her, but
she’s also very aware that the prospect of pitching to the
likes of Sua and Auelua with a runner on base should be just as
unappealing.
“What I’m really excited about is that our
surrounding hitters are a year older, a year more
experienced,” Nuveman said. “Those are good things for
me selfishly and personally, because if everyone around me is
tearing it up, then they can’t throw around me.”
The task for head coach Sue Enquist at the beginning of the
season has also been affected by the team’s maturity.
She’s noticed how the players are able to keep the core
fundamentals sharp. Enquist doesn’t have to worry as much
about the team playing to the scoreboard (a.k.a., losing its
focus).
“They know what kind of discipline it takes to do the
little things well at this point in the season, they are very
comfortable with one another in the infield and they just have
another year under their belt,” Enquist said.
The competition will be fierce all year, but the Bruins are not
really concentrating on that right now.
Defending champion and top-ranked Arizona lost a lot of key
seniors, but does return ace Jenny Finch, who shutout the Bruins
three times last season.
Click Here to See Larger Image
Seven of the eight Pac-10 teams are ranked in the preseason
poll, including Stanford, who like the Bruins, is very experienced.
Out of conference teams like LSU, which relies on pitching, will
also make an impact before the season ends May 27 at Oklahoma
City.
“There are a lot of teams that really are going to be
better than they were last year because they have another year of
experience,” Nuveman said.
And one of them is UCLA.