CHRIS BACKLEY/Daily Bruin Senior Amanda
Freed pitches during UCLA’s 7-0 victory over Oregon on
Saturday. UCLA d. Oregon St. 7-0 UCLA d. Oregon 7-0 UCLA d.
Oregon 3-1
By Vytas Mazeika
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
As far as the fans are concerned, the wrong slugger hit two home
runs this weekend. But to UCLA softball head coach Sue Enquist,
that was not the case.
With senior catcher Stacey Nuveman approaching the NCAA career
home run record ““ at 84 she is one shy of tying it ““ it
was sophomore designated player Claire Sua who stole the spotlight
by breaking out of a 1-for-28 slump to hit one home run on Saturday
and another Sunday.
The No. 2 Bruins (40-6, 8-3 Pac-10) used Sua’s offensive
explosion and dominant pitching by sophomore pitcher Keira Goerl to
sweep the Oregon schools and extend their conference win streak to
seven games.
“It just felt really good to help the team out and get
some runs across the board,” Sua said. “It was
important to me.”
Nuveman did at least hit one home run. It came Friday against
No. 14 Oregon State (32-15, 5-7), as Nuveman drove an outside
change-up over the center field wall for her 14th homer of the
season, a two-run shot.
“The big one is going to come,” Enquist said.
“It’s just a matter of time.”
The runs were not really necessary for the Bruins, as Goerl
completely shut down the Beavers en route to a 7-0 victory.
In fact, Friday’s performance was almost a rare Pac-10
no-hitter. But that disappeared in the sixth inning, when senior
second baseman Crissy Buck double-clutched a grounder up the middle
and OSU shortstop Kelly Peterson was questionably called safe at
first.
Buck had just entered the game defensively at second, as junior
Monique Mejia had dislocated her finger on a successful stolen base
attempt in the bottom of the fifth. Mejia also suffered a small
fracture and will be out of action for two to four weeks.
“I thought I came up with the ball and I thought I had it,
but those things happen,” Buck said. “I feel bad that I
let that happen, but Keira wasn’t too mad at me, so
it’s OK.”
Buck herself responded with a 2-for-3 performance at the plate
on Saturday and Goerl (21-4) came back to allow three hits and an
unearned run in seven innings of work during Sunday’s 3-1 win
over Oregon (18-21, 0-12).
“You never want to let down against these teams because
that’s when things will turn around against you,” Goerl
said.
With two runners on and two outs in the bottom of the fifth and
the Bruins leading 3-0, Sua pulled the ball down the left field
line. Her eighth home run of the season gave UCLA all the insurance
it would need, as the Bruins went on to win 7-0 on Saturday.
Next up for the Bruins is a much tougher contest against No. 9
Washington, who also swept the Oregon schools, Wednesday at Easton
Stadium.