Thursday, February 23
Cathedral City, CA
7:30 PM
UCLA
vs
Florida
Freshman utility Kennedy Powell
No. 1 Bruins to Play Six Games at Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic
February 22, 2023 | Softball
LOS ANGELES โ The No. 1 UCLA softball team (12-0) will compete at the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic in Cathedral City, Calif., for the 18th consecutive rendition of the tournament, playing six games from Thursday, Feb. 23, through Sunday, Feb. 26. The Bruins will square off with three teams from last year's Women's College World Series: No. 3 Florida, No. 19 Northwestern and No. 2 Oklahoma.
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UCLA begins action against the Gators on Thursday, Feb. 23 at 7:30 p.m. (PT). Every game of the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic will be available for livestreaming on FloSoftball.
The tournament's finale will be a marquee matchup versus the top two teams in the country in UCLA and Oklahoma at 9:30 a.m. (PT).
UCLA's Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic Schedule
ย Key Notes About UCLA
โข The Bruins have returned two of their top five main contributors in the lineup and their ace from last season's squad. UCLA went 51-10 last year, advancing to the Women's College World Series for a seventh consecutive season and finishing t-3rd. Veteran players back this season include seventh year Aaliyah Jordan and redshirt seniors Megan Faraimo, Anna Vines and Kelli Godin. All four players helped the Bruins win their most recent NCAA Championship in 2019. UCLA has also returned redshirt juniors Maya Brady, Seneca Curo and sophomore Savannah Pola.
โข UCLA added 11 total newcomers to the roster this season for its most in program history (previously was eight). Four of the new Bruins are transfers: Janelle Meoño (OF) and Sharlize Palacios (C) from Arizona and Brooke Yanez (LHP) and Rachel Cid (INF) from Oregon. The seven freshmen include utilities Kennedy Powell and Megan Grant, pitcher Taylor Tinsley, catcher Alexis Ramirez and infielders Rylee Pinedo, Jordan Woolery and Ramsey Suarez.
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A New No. 1 in Westwood
UCLA was listed as the No. 1 team in the nation in the USA Today/NFCA Coaches and ESPN.com/USA Softball polls on Tuesday. The Bruins' ascension ends Oklahoma's stranglehold on the top spot of the NFCA poll after 31 consecutive weeks. The Bruins received 29 out of 32 possible first place votes in the NFCA poll and received every first-place vote in the USA Softball poll. This marks UCLA's first appearance at No. 1 in the NFCA poll since week three of the 2021 season. This is UCLA's 83rd week at No. 1 in the NFCA poll.
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Recapping Clearwater
UCLA saw several late-inning heroics in its 5-0 weekend at the TaxACT Clearwater Invitational in Clearwater, Fla. The Bruins defeated three top-15 teams in the process in No. 6 Florida State, No. 8 Virginia Tech and No. 15 Alabama. Freshmen Jordan Woolery and Megan Grant led the Bruins with seven RBI apiece.
Nebraska: In UCLA's 8-0 win over the Huskers, Woolery recorded a pair of RBI doubles in the third and fifth innings to put the Bruins up 5-0 heading into the sixth inning. Her classmate Megan Grant followed suit with a 2-RBI double of her own to walk it off in mercy-rule fashion. Brooke Yanez tossed her second complete-game shutout of the season.
Alabama: Woolery supplied UCLA all the runs it needed with one swing of the bat in the first inning against the Crimson Tide. The freshman infielder from Walnut Creek, Calif., recorded the first home run of her career in grand slam fashion with a blast off three-time NFCA All-American Montana Fouts that ricocheted off the scoreboard in right field. Faraimo rode the Bruins' four spot in the first inning to the first of her three victories over the weekend.
Florida State: The Bruins entered the sixth inning versus the Seminoles trailing 2-0. After Woolery and Kennedy Powell each displayed some freshmen poise to load the bases and walk in a run, Seneca Curo drilled a ball down the left field line to clear the bases with a 3-RBI double and give the Bruins a 4-2 lead. Faraimo surrendered a 2-RBI base hit to Florida State's nine hitter in the bottom half of the sixth to make it a tie game. A single by Savannah Pola and double by Maya Brady put two runners in scoring position for Grant. After two swings to make it an 0-2 count, Grant and first base coach Lisa Fernandez met for a conference on the foul line. The very next pitch, Grant singled over the first baseman's head to score the game-winning runs.
Virginia Tech: UCLA wasted no time in game two Saturday, tallying six runs on eight base hits in the first inning. The Bruins opened the game with a string of five consecutive hits. Sharlize Palacios went 3-for-4 with two RBI while Maya Brady put an exclamation point on the day with a towering solo homer to right field for her fifth longball of the year.
Louisiana: Utility Savannah Pola put on a display of resiliency in the Bruins' comeback victory over the Ragin' Cajuns. Pola stepped to the plate in the seventh inning with the tying run on second base and two outs. Pola, who had a throwing error earlier in the game that led to Louisiana taking the lead, redeemed herself with a base hit into left field to score Lauryn Carter and tie the game, 3-3. Brady followed Pola with a base hit into right field. An errant throw by right fielder Kramer Eschete to third base allowed Pola to scramble home for the game-winning run.
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Freshman Slugging Duo
Megan Grant and Jordan Woolery rank first and tied for second, respectively, amongst all freshmen in the country in runs batted in. Grant has 15 RBI while Woolery has 14. Grant's total is tied for the team lead with Maya Brady. The freshmen duo have hit in the No. 3 and 4 spots in the lineup in each of the Bruins' last five games.
Notes on Other Freshmen: Kennedy Powell has been stacking up quality at-bats and has earned herself a spot in the lineup. Six of her nine base hits this season have driven in a run.
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Faraimo Leading the Nation
Megan Faraimo's seven wins (7-0) and 69 strikeouts lead the nation through two weeks of the 2023 season. Faraimo has racked up three 13-strikeout performances in her eight appearances. She is up to 35 double-digit strikeout outings in her career. Two of Faraimo's three wins last weekend came in relief for Taylor Tinsley. At one point across UCLA's games against Alabama and Virginia Tech, Faraimo retired 18 consecutive batters, including 14 by way of strikeout.ย
UCLA is one of 10 undefeated teams still remaining in the country. The Bruins will meet with one of those teams in No. 3 Florida on Thursday.
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Quick Adjustments
UCLA saw 16 total pitchers over its five games at the TaxACT Clearwater Invitational last weekend. The Bruins saw six pitchers alone in their game against the Seminoles and five more versus the Ragin' Cajuns.
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Top-10 Wins on the Same Day
UCLA's two top-10 wins over Florida State and Virginia Tech marked the first time it had defeated a top-10 foe(s) twice on the same day since April 10, 2021, when it beat No. 4 Oregon twice. Current Bruin left-handed pitcher Brooke Yanez was on that Ducks' squad.
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Where the Bruins Stack Up Nationally
โข In the circle, Megan Faraimo leads the nation with seven wins and 69 strikeouts.
โข Megan Grant leads all freshmen in the nation with 15 RBI while classmate Jordan Woolery is tied for second with 14.
โข Maya Brady ranks second in the nation in hits (21), t-2nd in total bases (40) and is t-4th in home runs (5).
โข Savannah Pola is tied for 11th in the country with 16 hits.
โข As as team, UCLA ranks second in the nation with 112 hits and 93 runs scored
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Climbing UCLA's All-Time Rankings
โข With her impressive performances last weekend, Maya Brady saw her career slugging percentage increase eight points to .723 which puts her at third all-time in UCLA history. She leapfrogged Delaney Spaulding and Tairia Mims after passing teammate Aaliyah Jordan (.688) last week. Brady has seen her career slugging percentage improve from .686 to .723.
โข Megan Faraimo's seven wins to begin 2023 pushed her career record to 79-13. She is currently ninth on UCLA's career wins list. Faraimo passed Ally Carda (2012-15) and former teammate Rachel Garcia (2017-21) on the Bruins' career strikeouts list. Faraimo has now struck out 837 batters and is 115 shy of tying her Debbie Doom (1982-85) for third all-time with 952.
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NFCA National Player of the Week
On Feb. 14, redshirt junior utility Maya Brady received NFCA National Player of the Week honors after going 13-for-16 with 14 RBI and four home runs in UCLA's season-opening Stacy Winsberg Memorial Tournament. In that stretch, Brady broke a 24-year-old UCLA record with 11 consecutive base hits after going 4-for-4 with two home runs in game one versus San Diego on Sunday, 6-for-6 in her two games on Saturday and 1-for-1 versus CSU Bakersfield on Friday. UCLA legends Lisa Fernandez (March 1993) and Stacey Nuveman (Feb. 1999) formerly held the record.
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Brady's 13 hits were tied for second most by a UCLA player through the first six games of a season. Only Kylee Perez had more with 14 in 2017. Brady is tied with Natasha Watley, who had 13 hits to open the 2003 and 2002 seasons, and Stephanie Ramos (2003) and Christie Ambrosi (1999). Game one versus San Diego on Feb. 12 also marked the third multi-homer game of her UCLA career. Brady capped her first weekend of the season with a walk-off, 3-run home run versus San Diego in game two to give her three total home runs on the day.
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Brady became the 17th Bruin ever to receive NFCA National Player of the Week honors. A UCLA student-athlete has received the award a total of 26 times.
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Back-to-Back No-Hitters
Freshman Taylor Tinsley and Megan Faraimo tossed back-to-back no-hitters in week one of the season. Tinsley no-hit CSU Bakersfield in her first career start on Friday, Feb. 11. Tinsley joins Amanda Freed (1999-2002) as the only Bruins to throw a no-hitter in their first career appearance in the circle. Freed no-hit Santa Clara in her pitching debut on Feb. 5, 1999. Tinsley's performance marked the 115th no-hitter in UCLA history. Her final line included four strikeouts and no walks nor any errors. The Roadrunners' first and only baserunner did not come until the fifth inning when Alexis Ortega reached via catcher's interference.
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The very next day, Faraimo threw the sixth solo no-hitter of her career. The Bruins last threw no-hitters in back-to-back games in 2022. Faraimo and Lauren Shaw combined for a perfect game versus Pennsylvania on March 10 and Faraimo struck out 15 consecutive Roadrunners in her perfecto against CSU Bakersfield on March 11.
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USA Softball Player of the Year Watch List
Senior Megan Faraimo and juniors Maya Brady and Sharlize Palacios were selected to the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year Top 50 Watch List. Brady, a utility out of Thousand Oaks, Calif., was second on the squad with 15 home runs in 2022, two of which came on June 6 versus No. 1 Oklahoma at the Women's College World Series. Reigning Pac-12 Pitcher of the Year Megan Faraimo tossed two solo perfect games (and one combined with Lauren Shaw) and led the conference in strikeouts (292) in 2022. Palacios helped Arizona to the WCWS as the team's starting catcher with 20 homers last season.
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Preseason All-Pac-12 Team
Five UCLA players were named to the 2023 Preseason All-Pac-12 Team on Feb. 1: Maya Brady, Megan Faraimo, Aaliyah Jordan, Sharlize Palacios and Brooke Yanez. UCLA paced the conference with five of the 19 named to the team with the next-closest school being Washington with four selections.ย
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Pac-12 Favorites
The Bruins were picked to finish first in the annual Pac-12 Softball Coaches' Preseason Poll. UCLA received eight of nine possible first-place votes in the preseason poll. Washington was the only other institution to receive a first-place vote. UCLA garnered a total of 64 points to secure its spot atop the preseason coaches poll for the third consecutive season and league-record 13th time overall (since 1999). The Bruins have not finished below third in the conference since 2013 (t-5th).
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A Look at the Schedule
โข UCLA will play a 56-game regular-season schedule with 26 games against 14 opponents ranked in the NFCA Coaches preseason top 25 poll. The Bruins will play five of the eight teams from last year's Women's College World Series: Florida (Feb. 23), Northwestern (Feb. 25), Oklahoma (Feb. 26), Oregon State (April 6-8) and Arizona (April 14-16).
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Golden Eagle Bruins
Faraimo, Brady and Palacios each represented Team USA on the U.S. Women's National Team over the offseason.
Faraimo: Competed in the Japan All-Star Series, The World Games in Birmingham, Ala., the Canada Cup and the Pan American Championship with fellow Bruin Rachel Garcia.
Palacios: Competed in the Japan All-Star Series and Canada Cup ... in 10 games across both events, she hit .471 (8-for-17) with two home runs, a triple and five RBI ... helped Team USA to a Canada Cup championship (.571 avg.).
Brady: Went 4-for-8 in the Japan All-Star Series.
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Good Things Come in Threes
UCLA's roster totes three of the last four Pac-12 Batting Champions in Aaliyah Jordan (2018), Kelli Godin (2019) and Janelle Meoño (2021). All three players won the award as freshmen. Jordan won the title with a .429 batting average (84 hits), Godin with a .418 average (56 hits) and Meoño with a .439 average (72 hits). Jordan's 84 hits in 2018 rank t-8th for a single season in UCLA history.
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Postseason Success
UCLA advanced to the WCWS for the seventh year in a row in 2022, extending its longest active streak in the nation. The Bruins have appeared in the NCAA Tournament a record 37 total times, including 23 straight, and have missed out on just three occasions (last in 1998). UCLA is the winningest team in NCAA postseason history with a 233-64 (.785) record.
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Offseason Promotions
UCLA coaching greats Lisa Fernandez and Kirk Walker each received promotions to associate head coach roles this past offseason. Fernandez, now the Mark Kalmansohn UCLA Associate Head Softball Coach as of August 10, 2022, begins her 25th season on the Bruins' staff in 2023 (1997-99, 2007-Pres.). With Fernandez on the staff, UCLA has posted a 1,117-240-2 (.822) record and won five NCAA Championships. Fernandez has also been honored as a member of the NFCA National Coaching Staff of the Year three times (2004, 2010, and 2019) and NFCA Regional CSOY seven times (last 2021). Arguably the greatest pitcher in softball history, Fernandez has coached nine Bruin hurlers to 20 NFCA All-American awards. Fernandez has led the Bruins to a top five nationally-ranked earned run average in every season since taking over as UCLA's pitching coach in 2019. In the Bruins' 2019 NCAA Championship campaign, Fernandez's staff dominated with a 1.43 earned run average, ranking second in the country.
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Walker, who has helped lead UCLA to seven NCAA Championships, was promoted on Aug. 12. Walker has accumulated a coaching record of 780-144-1 (.843) over 21 years in Westwood, separated by two stints from 1984-94 and 2012-Pres. Walker has been a fixture in the third base coaches' box since his return to UCLA in 2012, contributing to the 2019 National Coaching Staff of the Year award and five NFCA Regional Coaching Staff of the Year awards. Walker, who helped establish UCLA softball's early dynasty, was hired as the program's first-ever undergraduate assistant coach in 1985.
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Five All-Americans
UCLA returns three former NFCA All-Americans from last year's squad in Maya Brady, Aaliyah Jordan and Megan Faraimo and added two more through the transfer portal this offseason in Janelle Meoño and Brooke Yanez.
Brady: Brady was an NFCA First Team All-American in 2021 and is a two-time All-Pac-12 honoree. The redshirt sophomore utility was the Bruins' everyday center fielder a season ago and recorded 13 multi-RBI games.
Jordan: Jordan is a two-time NFCA First Team All-American (2021, 2018) and is one of four members still remaining from the Bruins' 2019 NCAA Championship squad. Jordan missed the majority of last season due to a torn anterior cruciate ligament suffered at the St. Pete Clearwater Elite Invitational. She is back in Westwood for her seventh year in 2023. She owns a career batting average of .389 and ranks third on UCLA's career doubles list with 60.
Faraimo: Faraimo is a two-time NFCA All-American after earning second team honors in 2022. She was the Bruins' ace last season with a 24-5 record and averaging a monstrous 10.32 K/7.
Meoño: Meoño was honored as an NFCA Third Team All-American in 2021 after claiming the Pac-12 Batting Champion title with a .442 batting average.
Yanez: Yanez was an NFCA Third Team All-American in her last season of action in 2021. That year, she was a 22-game winner with 268 strikeouts over 182.1 innings pitched as the ace of the Oregon Ducks' staff.
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New Bruins
โข UCLA reloaded via recruiting and the transfer portal in 2023. Highlighting the Bruins' class of freshmen are utility Megan Grant, infielder Jordan Woolery and pitcher Taylor Tinsley.
โข Megan Grant was ranked as the No. 2 overall recruit in the country by Extra Inning Softball after starring four years at Aragon High School. She was named to the San Francisco Chronicle's 2022 All-Metro First Team and Mercury News' All-Bay Area Softball First Team her senior season. In 2021, Grant helped United States U18 Women's National Team win gold at both the WBSC U18 World Cup in Lima, Peru, and Junior Pan American Games in Barranquilla, Colombia.
โข The Bruins beefed up their rotation with the addition of Taylor Tinsley, who was ranked as the No. 1 pitcher and No. 2 overall recruit by Softball America. Tinsley was awarded First Team All-State each year of her high school career a George Walton Academy. She is UCLA's first player out of the state of Georgia (Lawrenceville).
โข Transferring to Westwood from Arizona are outfielder Janelle Meoño and catcher Sharlize Palacios. Palacios was a member of two WCWS squads for the Wildcats as their everyday designated player in 2021 and everyday catcher in 2022. In three seasons, she totaled 122 hits, 128 RBI and 39 home runs, including three grand slams as a freshman in 2020. Palacios collected All-Pac-12 First Team plaudits in 2022 and 2021. Meoño, a rangy and speedy outfielder, bat leadoff in 34 of her 35 games played last season. In her Pac-12 Batting Champion 2021 season, Meoño had a 27-game hitting streak.
โข Also coming via the portal from Oregon are left-handed pitcher Brooke Yanez and infielder Rachel Cid. Yanez is back to full health after missing the 2022 season due to injury. Yanez had impressive showings against the Bruins in the past. In 2021, she defeated UCLA twice when it was ranked No. 1 and 2, respectively. Yanez struck out 10 Bruins in a 3-1 win on Feb. 28 and threw a two-hit shutout with eight strikeouts on April 9.
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Pitching Dominance
UCLA has led the Pac-12 in ERA and wins in each of the last four seasons. In 2022, the Bruins' pitching staff led the Pac-12 in nearly every statistical category: ERA (1.72), strikeouts (486), wins (51), opposing batting average (.180) and saves (12).
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Megantron
Megan Faraimo earned the first Pac-12 Pitcher of the Year award of her career and was named to her third All-Pac-12 First Team in 2022. Faraimo was also a USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year Top 25 Finalist for the second season in a row after boasting the her first 20-win season (24-5 record). Faraimo's 1.98 ERA and Pac-12-leading 292 strikeouts (8th in the country) earned her NFCA Second Team All-American honors. She also set a UCLA single-season record in saves (7).
Notes on Megan Faraimo: The tallest player on the squad at 6-foot, Faraimo owns a lifetime 1.45 ERA and is seventh on UCLA's career strikeouts list with 768. She owns a 72-13 career record. She has thrown four solo perfect games which ranks second all-time in program history behind Debbie Doom (1982-85, 6 perfect games). In her most recent perfect game versus CSU Bakersfield on March 11, 2022, Faraimo struck out all 15 batters she faced. Faraimo opened the game with 30 consecutive strikes. Her first ball came to the third batter of the third inning.
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UCLA begins action against the Gators on Thursday, Feb. 23 at 7:30 p.m. (PT). Every game of the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic will be available for livestreaming on FloSoftball.
The tournament's finale will be a marquee matchup versus the top two teams in the country in UCLA and Oklahoma at 9:30 a.m. (PT).
UCLA's Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic Schedule
| Date | Day | Home vs. Away | Time (PT) | Watch |
| 2/23/23 | Thu. | No. 1 UCLA vs. No. 3 Florida | 7:30 p.m. | FloSoftball |
| 2/24/23 | Fri. | No. 1 UCLA vs. No. 18 Kentucky | 5:30 p.m. | FloSoftball |
| 2/24/23 | Fri. | No. 1 UCLA vs. Iowa | 8ย p.m. | FloSoftball |
| 2/25/23 | Sat. | No. 1 UCLA vs. No. 19 Northwestern | 2:30 p.m. | FloSoftball |
| 2/25/23 | Sat. | No. 1 UCLA vs. Texas A&M | 5ย p.m. | FloSoftball |
| 2/26/23 | Sun. | No. 1 UCLA vs. No. 2 Oklahoma | 9:30 a.m. | FloSoftball |
ย Key Notes About UCLA
โข The Bruins have returned two of their top five main contributors in the lineup and their ace from last season's squad. UCLA went 51-10 last year, advancing to the Women's College World Series for a seventh consecutive season and finishing t-3rd. Veteran players back this season include seventh year Aaliyah Jordan and redshirt seniors Megan Faraimo, Anna Vines and Kelli Godin. All four players helped the Bruins win their most recent NCAA Championship in 2019. UCLA has also returned redshirt juniors Maya Brady, Seneca Curo and sophomore Savannah Pola.
โข UCLA added 11 total newcomers to the roster this season for its most in program history (previously was eight). Four of the new Bruins are transfers: Janelle Meoño (OF) and Sharlize Palacios (C) from Arizona and Brooke Yanez (LHP) and Rachel Cid (INF) from Oregon. The seven freshmen include utilities Kennedy Powell and Megan Grant, pitcher Taylor Tinsley, catcher Alexis Ramirez and infielders Rylee Pinedo, Jordan Woolery and Ramsey Suarez.
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A New No. 1 in Westwood
UCLA was listed as the No. 1 team in the nation in the USA Today/NFCA Coaches and ESPN.com/USA Softball polls on Tuesday. The Bruins' ascension ends Oklahoma's stranglehold on the top spot of the NFCA poll after 31 consecutive weeks. The Bruins received 29 out of 32 possible first place votes in the NFCA poll and received every first-place vote in the USA Softball poll. This marks UCLA's first appearance at No. 1 in the NFCA poll since week three of the 2021 season. This is UCLA's 83rd week at No. 1 in the NFCA poll.
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Recapping Clearwater
UCLA saw several late-inning heroics in its 5-0 weekend at the TaxACT Clearwater Invitational in Clearwater, Fla. The Bruins defeated three top-15 teams in the process in No. 6 Florida State, No. 8 Virginia Tech and No. 15 Alabama. Freshmen Jordan Woolery and Megan Grant led the Bruins with seven RBI apiece.
Nebraska: In UCLA's 8-0 win over the Huskers, Woolery recorded a pair of RBI doubles in the third and fifth innings to put the Bruins up 5-0 heading into the sixth inning. Her classmate Megan Grant followed suit with a 2-RBI double of her own to walk it off in mercy-rule fashion. Brooke Yanez tossed her second complete-game shutout of the season.
Alabama: Woolery supplied UCLA all the runs it needed with one swing of the bat in the first inning against the Crimson Tide. The freshman infielder from Walnut Creek, Calif., recorded the first home run of her career in grand slam fashion with a blast off three-time NFCA All-American Montana Fouts that ricocheted off the scoreboard in right field. Faraimo rode the Bruins' four spot in the first inning to the first of her three victories over the weekend.
Florida State: The Bruins entered the sixth inning versus the Seminoles trailing 2-0. After Woolery and Kennedy Powell each displayed some freshmen poise to load the bases and walk in a run, Seneca Curo drilled a ball down the left field line to clear the bases with a 3-RBI double and give the Bruins a 4-2 lead. Faraimo surrendered a 2-RBI base hit to Florida State's nine hitter in the bottom half of the sixth to make it a tie game. A single by Savannah Pola and double by Maya Brady put two runners in scoring position for Grant. After two swings to make it an 0-2 count, Grant and first base coach Lisa Fernandez met for a conference on the foul line. The very next pitch, Grant singled over the first baseman's head to score the game-winning runs.
Virginia Tech: UCLA wasted no time in game two Saturday, tallying six runs on eight base hits in the first inning. The Bruins opened the game with a string of five consecutive hits. Sharlize Palacios went 3-for-4 with two RBI while Maya Brady put an exclamation point on the day with a towering solo homer to right field for her fifth longball of the year.
Louisiana: Utility Savannah Pola put on a display of resiliency in the Bruins' comeback victory over the Ragin' Cajuns. Pola stepped to the plate in the seventh inning with the tying run on second base and two outs. Pola, who had a throwing error earlier in the game that led to Louisiana taking the lead, redeemed herself with a base hit into left field to score Lauryn Carter and tie the game, 3-3. Brady followed Pola with a base hit into right field. An errant throw by right fielder Kramer Eschete to third base allowed Pola to scramble home for the game-winning run.
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Freshman Slugging Duo
Megan Grant and Jordan Woolery rank first and tied for second, respectively, amongst all freshmen in the country in runs batted in. Grant has 15 RBI while Woolery has 14. Grant's total is tied for the team lead with Maya Brady. The freshmen duo have hit in the No. 3 and 4 spots in the lineup in each of the Bruins' last five games.
Notes on Other Freshmen: Kennedy Powell has been stacking up quality at-bats and has earned herself a spot in the lineup. Six of her nine base hits this season have driven in a run.
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Faraimo Leading the Nation
Megan Faraimo's seven wins (7-0) and 69 strikeouts lead the nation through two weeks of the 2023 season. Faraimo has racked up three 13-strikeout performances in her eight appearances. She is up to 35 double-digit strikeout outings in her career. Two of Faraimo's three wins last weekend came in relief for Taylor Tinsley. At one point across UCLA's games against Alabama and Virginia Tech, Faraimo retired 18 consecutive batters, including 14 by way of strikeout.ย
No. 1 vs. No. 2
Sunday's matchup between No. 1 UCLA and No. 2 Oklahoma will mark the first time UCLA has had a top-2 showdown in the regular season in 19 years. The last time was April 3 & 4, 2004, when No. 1 Arizona hosted a two-game series against the No. 2 Bruins. The Wildcats won both games in walk-off fashion.
UCLA is one of 10 undefeated teams still remaining in the country. The Bruins will meet with one of those teams in No. 3 Florida on Thursday.
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Quick Adjustments
UCLA saw 16 total pitchers over its five games at the TaxACT Clearwater Invitational last weekend. The Bruins saw six pitchers alone in their game against the Seminoles and five more versus the Ragin' Cajuns.
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Top-10 Wins on the Same Day
UCLA's two top-10 wins over Florida State and Virginia Tech marked the first time it had defeated a top-10 foe(s) twice on the same day since April 10, 2021, when it beat No. 4 Oregon twice. Current Bruin left-handed pitcher Brooke Yanez was on that Ducks' squad.
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Where the Bruins Stack Up Nationally
โข In the circle, Megan Faraimo leads the nation with seven wins and 69 strikeouts.
โข Megan Grant leads all freshmen in the nation with 15 RBI while classmate Jordan Woolery is tied for second with 14.
โข Maya Brady ranks second in the nation in hits (21), t-2nd in total bases (40) and is t-4th in home runs (5).
โข Savannah Pola is tied for 11th in the country with 16 hits.
โข As as team, UCLA ranks second in the nation with 112 hits and 93 runs scored
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Climbing UCLA's All-Time Rankings
โข With her impressive performances last weekend, Maya Brady saw her career slugging percentage increase eight points to .723 which puts her at third all-time in UCLA history. She leapfrogged Delaney Spaulding and Tairia Mims after passing teammate Aaliyah Jordan (.688) last week. Brady has seen her career slugging percentage improve from .686 to .723.
โข Megan Faraimo's seven wins to begin 2023 pushed her career record to 79-13. She is currently ninth on UCLA's career wins list. Faraimo passed Ally Carda (2012-15) and former teammate Rachel Garcia (2017-21) on the Bruins' career strikeouts list. Faraimo has now struck out 837 batters and is 115 shy of tying her Debbie Doom (1982-85) for third all-time with 952.
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NFCA National Player of the Week
On Feb. 14, redshirt junior utility Maya Brady received NFCA National Player of the Week honors after going 13-for-16 with 14 RBI and four home runs in UCLA's season-opening Stacy Winsberg Memorial Tournament. In that stretch, Brady broke a 24-year-old UCLA record with 11 consecutive base hits after going 4-for-4 with two home runs in game one versus San Diego on Sunday, 6-for-6 in her two games on Saturday and 1-for-1 versus CSU Bakersfield on Friday. UCLA legends Lisa Fernandez (March 1993) and Stacey Nuveman (Feb. 1999) formerly held the record.
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Brady's 13 hits were tied for second most by a UCLA player through the first six games of a season. Only Kylee Perez had more with 14 in 2017. Brady is tied with Natasha Watley, who had 13 hits to open the 2003 and 2002 seasons, and Stephanie Ramos (2003) and Christie Ambrosi (1999). Game one versus San Diego on Feb. 12 also marked the third multi-homer game of her UCLA career. Brady capped her first weekend of the season with a walk-off, 3-run home run versus San Diego in game two to give her three total home runs on the day.
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Brady became the 17th Bruin ever to receive NFCA National Player of the Week honors. A UCLA student-athlete has received the award a total of 26 times.
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Back-to-Back No-Hitters
Freshman Taylor Tinsley and Megan Faraimo tossed back-to-back no-hitters in week one of the season. Tinsley no-hit CSU Bakersfield in her first career start on Friday, Feb. 11. Tinsley joins Amanda Freed (1999-2002) as the only Bruins to throw a no-hitter in their first career appearance in the circle. Freed no-hit Santa Clara in her pitching debut on Feb. 5, 1999. Tinsley's performance marked the 115th no-hitter in UCLA history. Her final line included four strikeouts and no walks nor any errors. The Roadrunners' first and only baserunner did not come until the fifth inning when Alexis Ortega reached via catcher's interference.
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The very next day, Faraimo threw the sixth solo no-hitter of her career. The Bruins last threw no-hitters in back-to-back games in 2022. Faraimo and Lauren Shaw combined for a perfect game versus Pennsylvania on March 10 and Faraimo struck out 15 consecutive Roadrunners in her perfecto against CSU Bakersfield on March 11.
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USA Softball Player of the Year Watch List
Senior Megan Faraimo and juniors Maya Brady and Sharlize Palacios were selected to the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year Top 50 Watch List. Brady, a utility out of Thousand Oaks, Calif., was second on the squad with 15 home runs in 2022, two of which came on June 6 versus No. 1 Oklahoma at the Women's College World Series. Reigning Pac-12 Pitcher of the Year Megan Faraimo tossed two solo perfect games (and one combined with Lauren Shaw) and led the conference in strikeouts (292) in 2022. Palacios helped Arizona to the WCWS as the team's starting catcher with 20 homers last season.
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Preseason All-Pac-12 Team
Five UCLA players were named to the 2023 Preseason All-Pac-12 Team on Feb. 1: Maya Brady, Megan Faraimo, Aaliyah Jordan, Sharlize Palacios and Brooke Yanez. UCLA paced the conference with five of the 19 named to the team with the next-closest school being Washington with four selections.ย
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Pac-12 Favorites
The Bruins were picked to finish first in the annual Pac-12 Softball Coaches' Preseason Poll. UCLA received eight of nine possible first-place votes in the preseason poll. Washington was the only other institution to receive a first-place vote. UCLA garnered a total of 64 points to secure its spot atop the preseason coaches poll for the third consecutive season and league-record 13th time overall (since 1999). The Bruins have not finished below third in the conference since 2013 (t-5th).
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A Look at the Schedule
โข UCLA will play a 56-game regular-season schedule with 26 games against 14 opponents ranked in the NFCA Coaches preseason top 25 poll. The Bruins will play five of the eight teams from last year's Women's College World Series: Florida (Feb. 23), Northwestern (Feb. 25), Oklahoma (Feb. 26), Oregon State (April 6-8) and Arizona (April 14-16).
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Golden Eagle Bruins
Faraimo, Brady and Palacios each represented Team USA on the U.S. Women's National Team over the offseason.
Faraimo: Competed in the Japan All-Star Series, The World Games in Birmingham, Ala., the Canada Cup and the Pan American Championship with fellow Bruin Rachel Garcia.
Palacios: Competed in the Japan All-Star Series and Canada Cup ... in 10 games across both events, she hit .471 (8-for-17) with two home runs, a triple and five RBI ... helped Team USA to a Canada Cup championship (.571 avg.).
Brady: Went 4-for-8 in the Japan All-Star Series.
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Good Things Come in Threes
UCLA's roster totes three of the last four Pac-12 Batting Champions in Aaliyah Jordan (2018), Kelli Godin (2019) and Janelle Meoño (2021). All three players won the award as freshmen. Jordan won the title with a .429 batting average (84 hits), Godin with a .418 average (56 hits) and Meoño with a .439 average (72 hits). Jordan's 84 hits in 2018 rank t-8th for a single season in UCLA history.
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Postseason Success
UCLA advanced to the WCWS for the seventh year in a row in 2022, extending its longest active streak in the nation. The Bruins have appeared in the NCAA Tournament a record 37 total times, including 23 straight, and have missed out on just three occasions (last in 1998). UCLA is the winningest team in NCAA postseason history with a 233-64 (.785) record.
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Offseason Promotions
UCLA coaching greats Lisa Fernandez and Kirk Walker each received promotions to associate head coach roles this past offseason. Fernandez, now the Mark Kalmansohn UCLA Associate Head Softball Coach as of August 10, 2022, begins her 25th season on the Bruins' staff in 2023 (1997-99, 2007-Pres.). With Fernandez on the staff, UCLA has posted a 1,117-240-2 (.822) record and won five NCAA Championships. Fernandez has also been honored as a member of the NFCA National Coaching Staff of the Year three times (2004, 2010, and 2019) and NFCA Regional CSOY seven times (last 2021). Arguably the greatest pitcher in softball history, Fernandez has coached nine Bruin hurlers to 20 NFCA All-American awards. Fernandez has led the Bruins to a top five nationally-ranked earned run average in every season since taking over as UCLA's pitching coach in 2019. In the Bruins' 2019 NCAA Championship campaign, Fernandez's staff dominated with a 1.43 earned run average, ranking second in the country.
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Walker, who has helped lead UCLA to seven NCAA Championships, was promoted on Aug. 12. Walker has accumulated a coaching record of 780-144-1 (.843) over 21 years in Westwood, separated by two stints from 1984-94 and 2012-Pres. Walker has been a fixture in the third base coaches' box since his return to UCLA in 2012, contributing to the 2019 National Coaching Staff of the Year award and five NFCA Regional Coaching Staff of the Year awards. Walker, who helped establish UCLA softball's early dynasty, was hired as the program's first-ever undergraduate assistant coach in 1985.
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Five All-Americans
UCLA returns three former NFCA All-Americans from last year's squad in Maya Brady, Aaliyah Jordan and Megan Faraimo and added two more through the transfer portal this offseason in Janelle Meoño and Brooke Yanez.
Brady: Brady was an NFCA First Team All-American in 2021 and is a two-time All-Pac-12 honoree. The redshirt sophomore utility was the Bruins' everyday center fielder a season ago and recorded 13 multi-RBI games.
Jordan: Jordan is a two-time NFCA First Team All-American (2021, 2018) and is one of four members still remaining from the Bruins' 2019 NCAA Championship squad. Jordan missed the majority of last season due to a torn anterior cruciate ligament suffered at the St. Pete Clearwater Elite Invitational. She is back in Westwood for her seventh year in 2023. She owns a career batting average of .389 and ranks third on UCLA's career doubles list with 60.
Faraimo: Faraimo is a two-time NFCA All-American after earning second team honors in 2022. She was the Bruins' ace last season with a 24-5 record and averaging a monstrous 10.32 K/7.
Meoño: Meoño was honored as an NFCA Third Team All-American in 2021 after claiming the Pac-12 Batting Champion title with a .442 batting average.
Yanez: Yanez was an NFCA Third Team All-American in her last season of action in 2021. That year, she was a 22-game winner with 268 strikeouts over 182.1 innings pitched as the ace of the Oregon Ducks' staff.
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New Bruins
โข UCLA reloaded via recruiting and the transfer portal in 2023. Highlighting the Bruins' class of freshmen are utility Megan Grant, infielder Jordan Woolery and pitcher Taylor Tinsley.
โข Megan Grant was ranked as the No. 2 overall recruit in the country by Extra Inning Softball after starring four years at Aragon High School. She was named to the San Francisco Chronicle's 2022 All-Metro First Team and Mercury News' All-Bay Area Softball First Team her senior season. In 2021, Grant helped United States U18 Women's National Team win gold at both the WBSC U18 World Cup in Lima, Peru, and Junior Pan American Games in Barranquilla, Colombia.
โข The Bruins beefed up their rotation with the addition of Taylor Tinsley, who was ranked as the No. 1 pitcher and No. 2 overall recruit by Softball America. Tinsley was awarded First Team All-State each year of her high school career a George Walton Academy. She is UCLA's first player out of the state of Georgia (Lawrenceville).
โข Transferring to Westwood from Arizona are outfielder Janelle Meoño and catcher Sharlize Palacios. Palacios was a member of two WCWS squads for the Wildcats as their everyday designated player in 2021 and everyday catcher in 2022. In three seasons, she totaled 122 hits, 128 RBI and 39 home runs, including three grand slams as a freshman in 2020. Palacios collected All-Pac-12 First Team plaudits in 2022 and 2021. Meoño, a rangy and speedy outfielder, bat leadoff in 34 of her 35 games played last season. In her Pac-12 Batting Champion 2021 season, Meoño had a 27-game hitting streak.
โข Also coming via the portal from Oregon are left-handed pitcher Brooke Yanez and infielder Rachel Cid. Yanez is back to full health after missing the 2022 season due to injury. Yanez had impressive showings against the Bruins in the past. In 2021, she defeated UCLA twice when it was ranked No. 1 and 2, respectively. Yanez struck out 10 Bruins in a 3-1 win on Feb. 28 and threw a two-hit shutout with eight strikeouts on April 9.
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Pitching Dominance
UCLA has led the Pac-12 in ERA and wins in each of the last four seasons. In 2022, the Bruins' pitching staff led the Pac-12 in nearly every statistical category: ERA (1.72), strikeouts (486), wins (51), opposing batting average (.180) and saves (12).
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Megantron
Megan Faraimo earned the first Pac-12 Pitcher of the Year award of her career and was named to her third All-Pac-12 First Team in 2022. Faraimo was also a USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year Top 25 Finalist for the second season in a row after boasting the her first 20-win season (24-5 record). Faraimo's 1.98 ERA and Pac-12-leading 292 strikeouts (8th in the country) earned her NFCA Second Team All-American honors. She also set a UCLA single-season record in saves (7).
Notes on Megan Faraimo: The tallest player on the squad at 6-foot, Faraimo owns a lifetime 1.45 ERA and is seventh on UCLA's career strikeouts list with 768. She owns a 72-13 career record. She has thrown four solo perfect games which ranks second all-time in program history behind Debbie Doom (1982-85, 6 perfect games). In her most recent perfect game versus CSU Bakersfield on March 11, 2022, Faraimo struck out all 15 batters she faced. Faraimo opened the game with 30 consecutive strikes. Her first ball came to the third batter of the third inning.
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