The Bruins are preparing to spend the next three weeks in Los Angeles.
No. 4 UCLA softball (8-1) will meet Cal State Fullerton (9-7) at home Wednesday afternoon before making a day trip to Long Beach to take on Long Beach State on Saturday and returning to Easton Stadium on Sunday to host San Jose State (2-4). The games will be the first of 12 straight matches the Bruins will play in Los Angeles County.
“(Traveling) has been kind of hard with (the COVID-19 pandemic),” said redshirt junior outfielder Aaliyah Jordan. “It’ll just be nice to be able to sleep in (our) own beds and wake up and not have to do as much. Being (in Los Angeles) for a while is definitely going to give us an advantage.”
UCLA swept a twin bill against Fullerton with a pair of come-from-behind wins Feb. 20. The Titans have a 5-1 record since they last met the Bruins, dropping a single match against San Diego by a one-run margin.
UCLA owns a five-game winning streak against Fullerton.
Coach Kelly Inouye-Perez said the team is going to build on its experiences so far this season to approach its next games.
“We know the game doesn’t know who’s supposed to win,” Inouye-Perez said. “We’re going to get ready to show up and play UCLA softball, and I just hope we can manufacture some more runs and we can pitch better, as we were challenged in both areas.”
The Bruins will be the Beach’s second opponent of the year. Long Beach State saw four straight games canceled to start its season and will not face its first opponent until Thursday afternoon.
The last time UCLA met Long Beach State – in 2019 – the Beach forced eight innings before the Bruins ultimately secured a 5-3 win.
Jordan said the team is getting ready for anything its opponent will throw at it.
“We’re always up for a challenge,” Jordan said. “So, any team that’s going to bring it when we go head-to-head makes us excited.”
UCLA will cap off the weekend at home against San Jose State in the last of five games the Spartans will play over the weekend.
UCLA has a 13-0 all-time record against San Jose State, and the Spartans are the first of the Bruins’ opponents this season to own a losing record.
After a road series last week that featured a loss to No. 6 Oregon, redshirt junior infielder Briana Perez said she thinks UCLA will be strong as it enters this series of frequent competitions.
“Hopefully, we can just recover quickly after (last) weekend,” Perez said. “(We want to) just play within ourselves and play our game, and we’ll be all right. On the road, we try to find our groove, but we feel comfortable in our own spot.”