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SAN FRANCISCO - The Bruins received a pair of weekly honors from the Pac-12 Conference on Monday, as redshirt junior Paige McDuffee was named Pitcher of the Week and Brianna Tautalafua earned league Freshman of the Week accolades.
The duo helped the 16th-ranked Bruins to their first series win against Oregon since 2010 and handed the fourth-ranked Ducks their first Pac-12 series loss since 2013.
McDuffee was stellar in two appearances in Eugene, picking up a win on Sunday and posting a 0.72 earned run average and four strikeouts in 9 2/3 innings. After missing the last home series against Washington due to a left leg injury, she was on a pitch count versus the Ducks, but was incredibly economical in her pitching numbers, particularly on Sunday. Starting Saturday's game, she tossed three innings before reaching her limit, striking out two and giving up just a run and two hits. The redshirt junior induced three double plays during the game, as UCLA kept the national lead in that category.
McDuffee was outstanding though on Sunday, getting through 6 2/3 innings of relief with only 58 pitches. She struck out two and gave up just one unearned run, one hit and one walk. McDuffee retired the last 14 batters of the game to win her second contest of the season. She has a 0.75 ERA on the year with eight strikeouts in 18 2/3 innings, holding opponents to a .138 batting average.
Tautalafua's hit total rose throughout the weekend at Oregon, recording one hit on Friday, two on Saturday and three on Sunday. Including a midweek win at Cal State Fullerton, Tautalafua batted .500 with six hits in 12 at-bats, adding three home runs, six runs batted in and five runs scored. In game one against Oregon, after reaching base via errors in her first two at-bats, the freshman connected on her first long ball of the weekend, a three-run shot in the fifth, in the Bruins' 16-6 rout.
A day later, Tautalafua singled in her first at-bat and posted an RBI hit in her third appearance before leaving the yard twice on Sunday. She hit a solo homer in the second and added another solo shot in the fifth, adding a seventh-inning single for the first three-hit game of her career. Tautalafua is batting .294 this season with four homers and 11 RBI.
UCLA earned its third and fourth Pac-12 weekly honors on Monday, having now won one of each. Junior Delaney Spaulding (March 14) and sophomore Kylee Perez (Feb. 23) each received conference Player of the Week accolades. McDuffee's award is the first of her career and the 63rd Pac-10/12 Pitcher of the Week award for UCLA, while Tautalafua's nod was the first league Freshman of the Week plaudit for the Bruins in just the second year of the award's existence.
The Bruins host Stanford at Easton Stadium for a weekend wraparound series, Saturday at 7:30 p.m., Sunday at 6 p.m. and Monday at 7 p.m. All three games will air on Pac-12 Network.