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#10/#10 Washington at #14/#16 UCLA
Thursday - 5 p.m.
TV: Pac-12 Network Los Angeles and Washington
Friday - 7 p.m.
TV: None
Saturday - 12:30 p.m.
TV: Pac-12 Network National, Los Angeles and Washington
Live Audio
Live Stats
Twitter Updates
BRUINS LOOKING FOR BETTER WEATHER AT HOME VS. WASHINGTON
After enduring delays, darkness and dancing all weekend in Berkeley, the 14th-ranked Bruins are ready for some dry weather and home cooking in their Easton Stadium Pac-12 opener against #10 Washington. The series starts on Thursday at 5 p.m., continues on Friday at 7 p.m. and concludes on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. Thursday's game will air on Pac-12 Network Los Angeles and Washington, while Saturday's contest will be televised on Pac-12 National, L.A. and Washington, with no TV for Friday's affair. All three games will feature free live audio and live stats on UCLABruins.com, as well as Twitter updates on twitter.com/UCLASoftball.
BRUINS IN THE POLLS
UCLA remained at 14th in this week's USA Today/NFCA poll for the third straight week, but improved one spot to 16th in the latest ESPN.com/USA Softball rankings. The Bruins were ranked second in the Pac-12 preseason poll.
BRUINS HALTED IN THE BAY
A day that began at 1 p.m. for #14 UCLA and California ended in darkness and rain, as the two teams braved nearly 3 1/2 hours of weather delays and played 5 1/2 innings without an official result for Monday's contest.
Play was officially halted at 6:49 p.m., the third delay of the afternoon and evening. The Pac-12 Conference office will decide if the game remains halted or will revert back to the previous full inning, in which the contest would be considered a 3-3 tie (score after the fifth). Until a decision is made, the statistics for the game will not count towards either team's tally.
The Bruins had five hits through six innings, as junior Gabrielle Maurice recorded a pair of RBI singles. Three pitchers saw the circle for UCLA. Sophomore Selina Ta'amilo started and struck out one in two hitless innings, giving up one walk. Redshirt junior Paige McDuffee fanned two in an inning of work, allowing a run, two hits and two walks. Sophomore Johanna Grauer tossed two frames of relief, striking out one and giving up two runs (one earned), two hits and two walks and was in the circle in the bottom of the sixth when play was called.
After a scoreless first, UCLA got on the board in the second inning, which lasted over three hours. Sophomore Madeline Jelenicki led off with a sharp-hit infield single to third and moved to second on a sacrifice by freshman Paige Halstead. Maurice worked a 1-2 count before the rains came for the first time, causing a two-hour, 44-minute delay. Upon resumption, Maurice knocked the first pitch she saw up the middle for a single to bring in Jelenicki to put the Bruins on the board. Maurice took second on the throw in, and one out later, came home on a single to left off the bat of senior Allexis Bennett to increase UCLA's lead to 2-0.
In the bottom of the third, a two-out, bases-loaded walk to Taurie Pogue snapped McDuffee's scoreless streak at 8 2/3 innings to cut the Bruins' lead to a run. In the fourth, Cal tied the game without the benefit of a hit, as two walks, a hit by pitch and a dropped throw by junior Delaney Spaulding on a pick-off attempt plated Octavia Bond to make it 2-all.
UCLA re-took the lead in the fifth. Freshman Zoe Shaw walked, moved to second on a Bennett ground out, advanced to third on an illegal pitch and scored on an RBI single through the 5-6 hole by Spaulding to make it 3-2. In the bottom half of the fifth, the Bears tied it again on a two-out, RBI single from Kobie Pettis.
The Bruins grabbed the lead back in the sixth. Jelenicki reached on a leadoff error and was pinch-run for by freshman Imani Johnson, who moved to second on a sacrifice from Halstead and scored on Maurice's second RBI single to put UCLA on top 4-3. Grauer was pitching to the leadoff hitter in the bottom of the sixth, but with a 3-2 count, the already dark skies opened up and play was called for the day.
NEWS AND NOTES
Junior Gabrielle Maurice hit her first homer of the season on March 13 against Princeton, a two-run shot. She leads the team with eight hit by pitches and has been plunked 28 times in her career, which is sixth in school history ... sophomore Kylee Perez opened the year on a 14-game hitting streak and has just kept on hitting, ranking second on the team with a .425 batting average and tied for second with nine multiple-hit games. Perez had six hits in 14 at-bats at the Long Beach Tournament two weekends ago, including a three-hit contest against Iowa State and a two-hit game versus Princeton. She is also tied for third on the team with four steals ... senior Mysha Sataraka is going to miss playing in Berkeley, as both two-homer games in her career have come at Levine-Fricke Field. Her latest was on Saturday when she put the Bruins on the board in the fifth with a solo homer and gave them the lead for good in the ninth with another jack to left. Sataraka has reached base in 24 of 26 games, including 18 in a row from Feb. 12-March 5. She is tops on the squad with eight multiple-RBI contests ... sophomore Johanna Grauer leads the Bruins with nine victories in the circle, producing three in each of the last two regular-season tournaments. At the Long Beach Tournament, she limited the competition to two earned runs and eight hits over 14 innings in three victories. She has lowered her ERA from 6.21 on Feb. 27 to 3.87 entering the Washington series ... sophomore Selina Ta'amilo leads the Bruins with 75 strikeouts and has produced nine outings with at least five whiffs this season. Her career high came on Feb. 19 against UCF when she fanned 10. She has a 1.55 ERA in her last five appearances ... freshman Paige Halstead recorded her fifth double-figure hit contest in her last eight games on Saturday with a 2-for-3 effort at Cal. Her hardest hit ball of the afternoon ended up going for an out in the seventh with the Bruins down by a run, but with the bases loaded, it was good enough for a sacrifice fly to tie the score ... freshman Brianna Tautalafua made her season debut (right knee) against Utah Valley on March 12 and recorded an RBI single in her first career at-bat. She would reach base in all four plate appearances vs. UVU thanks to three walks, and also hit her first collegiate homer, a two-run shot, later that afternoon against Iowa State ... freshman Zoe Shaw has hits in six of her last seven games to raise her average from .173 to .246. She posted a pair of two-hit games on March 13 and also threw out a runner at home from right field against Iowa State ... senior Allexis Bennett leads the Bruins with 12 multiple-hit games, having posted seven two-hit contests, three three-hit affairs and a pair of games with four hits. She has reached base in 24 of 26 games and has hits in 20, including a 12-game hitting streak from Feb. 12-26 ... she gave up a run in Monday's halted game with Cal, but since those stats don't count yet, redshirt junior Paige McDuffee will take an eight-inning scoreless streak into this weekend. Making her season debut on March 12 (left leg) against Iowa State and tossing three shutout innings, McDuffee threw five scoreless frames of relief to earn a win on Saturday at Cal, retiring the final 11 of the game ... sophomore Madeline Jelenicki recorded the first two-homer game of her career against Utah Valley on March 12 and set a new personal best with five RBI. She hit four homers at the LB Tournament, leaving the yard with solo shots in both ends of the March 13 doubleheader vs. Princeton and LBSU. Like Halstead, Jelenicki has played four different positions (C, 1B, RF, DP) ... junior Delaney Spaulding has 11 hits in her last 21 at-bats (.524) with three homers and 13 RBI, producing a great weekend in Lakewood to earn her Pac-12 Player of the Week honors for the second time in her career. She hit her second grand slam of the year vs. Princeton, going 3-for-3, while a day earlier, Spaulding tied a career high with five RBI thanks to another game with a homer. She has a current streak of 11 games reaching base.
BRUINS IN THE NCAA RANKINGS
The Bruins enter this week's action ranked first in the nation in double plays turned with 18, and are also in the Top 35 in six other categories, including 19th in on base percentage (.424), 24th in batting average (.327) and runs per game (6.42), 25th in fielding percentage (.973), 26th in slugging (.508) and tied for 31st in triples (7). Individually, senior Mysha Sataraka is tied for first in the country with four sacrifice flies, second in walks (28), ninth in on base percentage (.587) and 21st in slugging (.864). Senior Allexis Bennett is tied for 21st in runs scored (32), 36th in batting average (.459) and tied for 38th in on base percentage (.539), sophomore Madeline Jelenicki is tied for 11th with three sacrifice flies, junior Gabrielle Maurice is tied for 20th with eight hit by pitches and sophomore Kylee Perez is tied for 32nd with six sacrifice hits.
BRUINS IN THE PAC-12 RANKINGS
The Bruins are second among Pac-12 teams in triples (7), tied for second in hit by pitches (18) and sacrifice flies (10), third in walks (102), tied for third in sacrifice hits (15) and fourth in on base percentage (.424). Individually, three Bruins are either first or tied for first atop the Pac-12 rankings. Senior Mysha Sataraka is first in on base percentage (.587), walks (28) and sacrifice flies (4), junior Gabrielle Maurice is tops with eight hit by pitches and sophomore Madeline Jelenicki is tied for first with two triples. A full list of the Bruins in the Pac-12 rankings can be found on page four of this release.
DELANEY SPAULDING NAMED PAC-12 PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Junior Delaney Spaulding was named Pac-12 Conference Player of the Week for the second time in her career on March 14 after posting a great offensive showing at the Long Beach State Louisville Slugger Invitational.
Spaulding was 9-for-16 (.563) with 11 runs batted in, three home runs, seven runs scored and two stolen bases in four Bruin victories. It was Spaulding's second career POW award after receiving the honor last March 9. The accolade is the 76th Pac-10/12 Player of the Week award for UCLA and the second this season after sophomore Kylee Perez picked up the nod on Feb. 23.
KYLEE PEREZ NAMED PAC-12 PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Sophomore Kylee Perez was named Pac-12 Player of the Week for the first time in her career on Feb. 23 after her outstanding offensive display at the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic I.
Perez had hits in all five games in Cathedral City, going 11-for-16 (.688) with seven runs batted in, five runs scored, two home runs, two walks and a stolen base. She had multiple hits in four of the five contests and at least three RBI in two games.
BENNETT, SPAULDING ON PLAYER OF THE YEAR WATCH LIST
Senior Allexis Bennett and junior Delaney Spaulding have been named to the 2016 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year Top 50 Watch List, as announced by ASA/USA Softball on Feb. 3.
The pre-season Watch List includes 25 seniors, 15 juniors and 10 sophomores. Freshmen can be considered for the award once they have competed at the collegiate level. The Top 25 finalists for the award will be announced on April 13. While an athlete does not have to be on the Watch List to be considered for the Top 25, the eventual USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year will come from the Top 25 finalists.
THE MATCHUP: UCLA VS. WASHINGTON
The Bruins lead the all-time series with Washington, 52-31, and won last year's series in Seattle. UCLA claimed 10-3 and 8-4 victories before dropping the finale by a score of 6-2. The Bruins are 21-13 at home against the Huskies, winning two of the three in the 2014 series at Easton Stadium.