By Vytas Mazeika
DAILY BRUIN SENIOR STAFF
[email protected]
OKLAHOMA CITY ““”“ The trouble with UCLA softball goes
all the way to the top.
Stacey Nuveman, a 2000 Olympian and the NCAA career home run
leader, is not performing, and it shows in the current Bruin
slump.
Usually teams don’t let Nuveman bat, especially in the
Women’s College World Series. Her 0-for-2 performance in
Thursday’s 1-0 loss to Florida State included a pop-up to
shallow right center and a check-swing grounder to the second
baseman. Nuveman also walked three times, once intentionally.
But the senior catcher’s contributions tend to extend
themselves outside of the batter’s box. And that’s
where the senior catcher failed Thursday.
Nuveman had two throwing errors. The first was a critical
misfire to left field that allowed FSU’s Brandi Stuart to
score and tie the game in the top of the fourth.
“I just let go, threw it and it was off,” Nuveman
said. “That’s all I can say about that. I don’t
over-think things, and I don’t intend to.”
Though the loss wasn’t entirely Nuveman’s fault,
sports are not necessarily fair to the elite. The team looks at
Nuveman for leadership, and it has to start on the field. Whether
that be with the bat, or by example.
UCLA now finds itself in unfamiliar territory, the loser’s
bracket. So with the team one loss away from elimination, head
coach Sue Enquist did not shy away from criticizing her
superstar.
“Disappointing,” Enquist said. “My
expectations are higher of Stacey Nuveman. She’s capable of
coming in here and leading us, and it’s just
disappointing.”
How can the Bruins offset a poor defense? “We’re
going to have to score a lot of runs,” senior Amanda Freed
said. “We didn’t do that today, and we’re in the
loser’s bracket.”
And it wasn’t just today that UCLA’s offense has
faltered simultaneously with the defense. The Bruins failed to
score more than two runs in each of the last three games in the
NCAA Regionals while committing eight errors.
It is an alarming statistic for a team that all year long has
saved itself by scoring runs. And since the level of competition
increases in the playoffs, the hitting cannot be expected to bail
out the defense.
“The hitting is going to come and go, and if we
don’t take care of the ball on defense, we’re going to
have an early summer,” Enquist said.