
L-r: Maya Brady and Jordan Woolery (photo: Softball America/Crash Kamon)
No. 15 Softball Hosts Double-Header Versus LMU
March 15, 2024 | Softball
LOS ANGELES โ The No. 15 UCLA softball team hosts a double-header versus LMU at Easton Stadium on Saturday, March 16. First pitch between the Bruins (15-6, 3-0 Pac-12) and Lions (12-12) for game one is at 12 p.m. (PT) and game two is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Fans can listen to the games live on ucla.leanplayer.com.
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UCLA is riding a seven-game winning streak โ its longest of the season โ after sweeping Utah in last week's Pac-12 Conference series opener and defeating Rutgers, 7-6, on Tuesday.
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Quick Hits
ยท UCLA is 15-6 on the season and 3-0 in Pac-12 Conference play following a sweep of Utah last week.
ยท UCLA went 11-6 in its "tournament season" schedule, including ranked wins over Florida State, Northwestern and Tennessee.
ยท RS Sr. Maya Brady leads UCLA with a .797 slugging percentage, 29 runs batted in and 12 extra-base hits.
ยท RS Sr. Janelle Meoño enters the week as UCLA's batting average leader with a .448 clip in 17 games played (13-for-29).
ยท Kelly Inouye-Perez is 10 wins away from 800 in her head coaching career.
ยท So. Taylor Tinsley leads UCLA in the circle with a 2.11 earned run average and 80 strikeouts over 66.1 innings pitched.
ยท The Bruins were picked to finish second in the final Pac-12 Preseason Coaches Poll (did not receive a first-place vote).
ยท UCLA is coming off its 12th Pac-12 regular-season championship with a 21-3 record in 2023 (17th overall conf. title).
ยท Four Bruins were named to the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year Top 50 Watch List: Brady, Sharlize Palacios, Megan Grant and Jordan Woolery.
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Key Notes About the Bruins
ยท The Bruins have returned seven key pieces from last season's batting lineup: redshirt seniors Maya Brady, Sharlize Palacios, Janelle Meoño and Seneca Curo, junior Savannah Pola and sophomores Megan Grant and Jordan Woolery. They return one arm from last season's pitching staff: sophomore Taylor Tinsley. UCLA has added seven incoming student-athletes with three transfers and four freshmen.
ยท Last season, UCLA went 52-7 and made a NCAA Tournament appearance for the 24th consecutive year which is the longest active streak among all programs. The No. 2 seed Bruins lost in the NCAA Regional round (0-2), marking the first time in seven years they did not reach the Women's College World Series. It was the first time in 10 years UCLA did not make it out of Regionals.
ยท Kelly Inouye-Perez enters her 18th season as the Bruins' head coach (The Shelly Carlin UCLA Head Softball Coach). Including her five years as a catcher on UCLA's roster, 13 years as an assistant coach and 17 years as head coach, the 2024 season marks Inouye-Perez's 36th consecutive season in Westwood. Known as "Coach I," Inouye-Perez is the only person to have won an NCAA Division I Softball Championship as both a player and coach. She led the Bruins to two NCAA Championships as head coach in 2010 and 2019. Inouye-Perez owns a 790-203-1 (.795) career record. Her .797 winning percentage entering the season ranks second among active head coaches and seventh all-time. UCLA's first two Hall-of-Fame head coaches, Sharron Backus and Sue Enquist, rank top two all-time in winning percentage.
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In the Polls
ยท UCLA enters the week ranked in both major polls. The Bruins check in at No. 15 in the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Poll and No. 16 in the ESPN/USA Softball Poll.
ยท In addition, the Bruins have been slotted in the No. 2 spot in the final Pac-12 Preseason Coaches Poll, as announced by the conference office on Feb. 1. Stanford was selected as the league's preseason favorite, garnering seven of nine first-place votes. Washington and Utah each received one first-place vote.
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Brady Earns Pac-12 Player of the Week Honors
For the second time this season, Bruins' star Maya Brady has been named Pac-12 Player of the Week. Brady led the Bruins with a .667 average (4-for-6), two home runs, eight runs batted in and four walks in last week's sweep of the Utes. The shortstop slugger reached base in eight of her 10 plate appearances. Brady's best performance of the weekend came in game three when she went 2-for-2 and tied her career high in RBI in with six. In the second inning, Brady launched the fourth grand slam of her career on a 3-0 count to put the Bruins up, 7-1. She stepped to the plate with the bases loaded again the very next inning, and with two outs, hit a hot shot to first base that skipped to the right field wall to clear the bases for the second time, putting the mercy rule into effect
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Brady's six career Pac-12 Player of the Week awards are tied with UCLA Athletic Hall of Fame and current associate head coach Lisa Fernandez for second in program history. She trails Stacey Nuveman Deniz with nine such awards.
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LMU Series History, Alumni Ties
UCLA owns a 31-1 advantage in the all-time series with LMU, dating back to 1987. The Bruins have won 12 straight meetings with their last loss to the Lions coming in the 2007 Los Angeles Regional of the NCAA Tournament. UCLA has limited LMU to one run or shutout the Lions in each of its last seven meetings.
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Coaching in the first base dugout for LMU is UCLA Athletic Hall of Famer and Tairia (Mims) Flowers who helped UCLA to its ninth NCAA Championship in 2003 with a .449 average, team-leading 22 home runs and team-leading 70 RBI. Playing under Flowers is recent UCLA graduate Lauryn Carter who transferred to LMU during Summer 2023. After three seasons as a platoon player for the Bruins, Carter has started in 22 if the Lions' 23 games this year. Carter earned her bachelor's in psychology from UCLA.
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Coach I Approaching Win No. 800
Head coach Kelly Inouye-Perez owns a 790-203-1 record and is 10 wins away from win No. 800 in her career. Inouye-Perez would join UCLA Athletic Hall of Famers and her two predecessors Sharron Backus and Sue Enquist in the 800 win club. Enquist leads UCLA's triad of head coaches with 887 career head coaching wins while Backus owns 854 such wins. Inouye-Perez was coached by both Backus and Enquist in her time as a catcher on the Bruins' roster from 1989-93 and later coached alongside Backus and Enquist as an assistant upon graduating.
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Milestone Watch for Brady
Career RBI: Brady's grand slam in the second inning of UCLA's 12-1 victory over Utah last Sunday pushed her past the 200 career RBI milestone. She joined six other Bruins who have reached that mark and needs seven more to surpass Aaliyah Jordan (2018-23) for fifth on UCLA's career RBI list.
Career Home Runs: Brady's two homers during the Utah series improved her career total to 60 which is good for sole possession of fifth on UCLA's all-time list. She needs one home run to tie Tairia (Mims) Flowers (2000-03) and Delaney Spaulding (2014-17) for third on the all-time list with 61. In second place is Stephany LaRosa (2012-15) with 66 HR.
Career Runs Scored: Brady has scored at least one run in each of UCLA's last four games, pushing her career total to 190 runs scored. She surpassed Stephany LaRosa for sixth on the all-time runs list last week and needs two more runs scored to pass Kylee Perez (2015-18) and crack the top 5.
Career Slugging Percentage: Brady improved her career slugging percentage mark to .797 over UCLA's last four games.ย That mark is currently good for third all-time.
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Grand Slam for Brady
Maya Brady recorded the fourth grand slam of her career in the second inning of game three of the Utah Series last Sunday.ย The home run marked Brady's first grand slam since her redshirt junior campaign when she cleared the bases versus Missouri at the 2022 Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic.
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A New UCLA Ace
Sophomore Taylor Tinsley has shown consistent improvement since week one of the 2024 season in her new role as UCLA's ace. This season, Tinsley leads the Bruins with a 2.11 ERA and 80 strikeouts over 66.1 innings pitched after totaling just 57.1 innings of work all last season in her All-Pac-12 Freshman Team campaign. Tinsley was named Pac-12 Pitcher of the Week for the first time in her career on Feb. 26 following her performances at the Mary Nutter Classic.
Tinsley at the Mary Nutter: Tinsley allowed just two earned runs across three complete-game performances and 22.0 total innings pitched at the Mary Nutter. Among all the pitchers competing at the Mary Nutter (30 teams participating), Tinsley ranked first in innings pitched (22.0) and strikeouts looking (10) and tied for first in strikeouts (30).
Tinsley vs. Utah: Tinsley picked up two wins, struck out 16 batters and did not allow an earned run over 10.2 innings to help the Bruins to a series sweep of Utah (March 8-10). In her game one victory, Tinsley threw 6.2 innings of shutout ball and allowed only one baserunner into scoring position. She finished her outing with nine strikeouts and surrendered just two hits. She limited the Pac-12 batting average leader entering the series, Haley Denning, to 0-for-6 with two K's.
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The Clutch Gene: Jadelyn Allchin
Graduate outfielder Jadelyn Allchin has recorded both a game-tying and game-winning hit over UCLA's last four games. In game two of the Utah series last Saturday, Allchin stepped to the plate with two outs in the bottom of the seventh and the Bruins trailing by one run, 5-4. Allchin brought home the game-tying run with a single into shallow left-center field. Sophomore Megan Grant came up later in the inning with the walk-off hit.
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In UCLA's Tuesday contest with Rutgers, Allchin faced a base-loaded scenario again with the game tied, 6-6. She cracked the first pitch she saw into the right-center gap to score the walk-off run.
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Allchin's Cannon
Allchin has had a stellar start to her UCLA career. The graduate transfer from Washington (2020-23) has recorded two outfield assists this season: one from left field in the Bruins' 6-2 win over Tennessee on Feb. 25 and one from center field against Oklahoma State on Feb. 11. With the Lady Vols rallying in the top of the third, Allchin gunned down Kiki Milloy attempting to score from second base with a no-hop, bullet throw from left field to Sharlize Palacios at home plate. It was the fifth outfield assist of her career. She now has five career outfield assists.
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9-1-2
Opposing pitchers are faced with a steep task in going through the Bruins' 9-1-2 spots in the batting order which consists of two former Pac-12 Batting Champions in Janelle Meoño and Maya Brady. Since Meoño's return to the lineup on Feb. 24, the combination of 9-1-2 batters over the last 12 games has mostly consisted of Meoño, Allchin and Brady, in that order. Over the last 12 games, UCLA's nine spot has hit for a .393 average and recorded a .514 on-base percentage. The one and two spots have hit for a .359 and .344 average in that span as well. Meoño has hit for a .462 average (12-for-26) since her return.ย
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Meoño's Reached Base Streak
Janelle Meoño has reached base in 12 straight games, beginning with her return to the lineup versus Illinois on Feb. 24. Her longest such streak in 2023 was six straight games to end the season. Megan Grant recorded the Bruins' longest reached base streak last season with 24 straight games.
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Palacios Power
Catcher Sharlize Palacios is tied for the team lead in home runs with six and ranks fourth in the Pac-12 with a .719 slugging percentage. She is coming off the 11th three-hit performance of her career against Rutgers last Tuesday, recording a pair of RBI hits with a double in the win. Defensively, Palacios has yet to record an error behind the dish and has thrown out four runners attempting to steal.
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Bless Ya, Thessa
Senior infielder Thessa Malau'ulu is enjoying the best season in her career to start 2024. After missing the entirety of the 2023 season due to an injury, Malau'ulu has produced at the bottom of the Bruins' lineup with a .351 batting average, good for fourth on the team. She also sports a .478 on-base percentage and has notched three doubles. In her first at-bat of the Utah series last Sunday, Malau'ulu golfed an 0-2 pitch into shallow right field with the bases loaded to give UCLA the lead for the remainder of the afternoon.
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Standout Performance For Terry
Freshman Kaitlyn Terry struck out a career-high 12 batters in her complete-game shutout over Weber State at the Judi Garman Classic on March 2. The 12 strikeouts are tied with Megan Faraimo (2019) and Rachel Garcia (2017) for the most by a Bruins' freshman over the last 15 years. Donna Kerr was the last UCLA freshman to rack up 12+ strikeouts, recording 15 in a win over Northwestern on March 9, 2008.
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Perfect vs. the Big Ten
UCLA went a perfect 6-0 versus its scheduled Big Ten Conference opponents this season with wins over Maryland, Nebraska, Northwestern, Illinois, Michigan and Rutgers.
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UCLA is riding a seven-game winning streak โ its longest of the season โ after sweeping Utah in last week's Pac-12 Conference series opener and defeating Rutgers, 7-6, on Tuesday.
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Quick Hits
ยท UCLA is 15-6 on the season and 3-0 in Pac-12 Conference play following a sweep of Utah last week.
ยท UCLA went 11-6 in its "tournament season" schedule, including ranked wins over Florida State, Northwestern and Tennessee.
ยท RS Sr. Maya Brady leads UCLA with a .797 slugging percentage, 29 runs batted in and 12 extra-base hits.
ยท RS Sr. Janelle Meoño enters the week as UCLA's batting average leader with a .448 clip in 17 games played (13-for-29).
ยท Kelly Inouye-Perez is 10 wins away from 800 in her head coaching career.
ยท So. Taylor Tinsley leads UCLA in the circle with a 2.11 earned run average and 80 strikeouts over 66.1 innings pitched.
ยท The Bruins were picked to finish second in the final Pac-12 Preseason Coaches Poll (did not receive a first-place vote).
ยท UCLA is coming off its 12th Pac-12 regular-season championship with a 21-3 record in 2023 (17th overall conf. title).
ยท Four Bruins were named to the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year Top 50 Watch List: Brady, Sharlize Palacios, Megan Grant and Jordan Woolery.
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Key Notes About the Bruins
ยท The Bruins have returned seven key pieces from last season's batting lineup: redshirt seniors Maya Brady, Sharlize Palacios, Janelle Meoño and Seneca Curo, junior Savannah Pola and sophomores Megan Grant and Jordan Woolery. They return one arm from last season's pitching staff: sophomore Taylor Tinsley. UCLA has added seven incoming student-athletes with three transfers and four freshmen.
ยท Last season, UCLA went 52-7 and made a NCAA Tournament appearance for the 24th consecutive year which is the longest active streak among all programs. The No. 2 seed Bruins lost in the NCAA Regional round (0-2), marking the first time in seven years they did not reach the Women's College World Series. It was the first time in 10 years UCLA did not make it out of Regionals.
ยท Kelly Inouye-Perez enters her 18th season as the Bruins' head coach (The Shelly Carlin UCLA Head Softball Coach). Including her five years as a catcher on UCLA's roster, 13 years as an assistant coach and 17 years as head coach, the 2024 season marks Inouye-Perez's 36th consecutive season in Westwood. Known as "Coach I," Inouye-Perez is the only person to have won an NCAA Division I Softball Championship as both a player and coach. She led the Bruins to two NCAA Championships as head coach in 2010 and 2019. Inouye-Perez owns a 790-203-1 (.795) career record. Her .797 winning percentage entering the season ranks second among active head coaches and seventh all-time. UCLA's first two Hall-of-Fame head coaches, Sharron Backus and Sue Enquist, rank top two all-time in winning percentage.
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In the Polls
ยท UCLA enters the week ranked in both major polls. The Bruins check in at No. 15 in the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Poll and No. 16 in the ESPN/USA Softball Poll.
ยท In addition, the Bruins have been slotted in the No. 2 spot in the final Pac-12 Preseason Coaches Poll, as announced by the conference office on Feb. 1. Stanford was selected as the league's preseason favorite, garnering seven of nine first-place votes. Washington and Utah each received one first-place vote.
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Brady Earns Pac-12 Player of the Week Honors
For the second time this season, Bruins' star Maya Brady has been named Pac-12 Player of the Week. Brady led the Bruins with a .667 average (4-for-6), two home runs, eight runs batted in and four walks in last week's sweep of the Utes. The shortstop slugger reached base in eight of her 10 plate appearances. Brady's best performance of the weekend came in game three when she went 2-for-2 and tied her career high in RBI in with six. In the second inning, Brady launched the fourth grand slam of her career on a 3-0 count to put the Bruins up, 7-1. She stepped to the plate with the bases loaded again the very next inning, and with two outs, hit a hot shot to first base that skipped to the right field wall to clear the bases for the second time, putting the mercy rule into effect
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Brady's six career Pac-12 Player of the Week awards are tied with UCLA Athletic Hall of Fame and current associate head coach Lisa Fernandez for second in program history. She trails Stacey Nuveman Deniz with nine such awards.
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LMU Series History, Alumni Ties
UCLA owns a 31-1 advantage in the all-time series with LMU, dating back to 1987. The Bruins have won 12 straight meetings with their last loss to the Lions coming in the 2007 Los Angeles Regional of the NCAA Tournament. UCLA has limited LMU to one run or shutout the Lions in each of its last seven meetings.
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Coaching in the first base dugout for LMU is UCLA Athletic Hall of Famer and Tairia (Mims) Flowers who helped UCLA to its ninth NCAA Championship in 2003 with a .449 average, team-leading 22 home runs and team-leading 70 RBI. Playing under Flowers is recent UCLA graduate Lauryn Carter who transferred to LMU during Summer 2023. After three seasons as a platoon player for the Bruins, Carter has started in 22 if the Lions' 23 games this year. Carter earned her bachelor's in psychology from UCLA.
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Coach I Approaching Win No. 800
Head coach Kelly Inouye-Perez owns a 790-203-1 record and is 10 wins away from win No. 800 in her career. Inouye-Perez would join UCLA Athletic Hall of Famers and her two predecessors Sharron Backus and Sue Enquist in the 800 win club. Enquist leads UCLA's triad of head coaches with 887 career head coaching wins while Backus owns 854 such wins. Inouye-Perez was coached by both Backus and Enquist in her time as a catcher on the Bruins' roster from 1989-93 and later coached alongside Backus and Enquist as an assistant upon graduating.
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Milestone Watch for Brady
Career RBI: Brady's grand slam in the second inning of UCLA's 12-1 victory over Utah last Sunday pushed her past the 200 career RBI milestone. She joined six other Bruins who have reached that mark and needs seven more to surpass Aaliyah Jordan (2018-23) for fifth on UCLA's career RBI list.
Career Home Runs: Brady's two homers during the Utah series improved her career total to 60 which is good for sole possession of fifth on UCLA's all-time list. She needs one home run to tie Tairia (Mims) Flowers (2000-03) and Delaney Spaulding (2014-17) for third on the all-time list with 61. In second place is Stephany LaRosa (2012-15) with 66 HR.
Career Runs Scored: Brady has scored at least one run in each of UCLA's last four games, pushing her career total to 190 runs scored. She surpassed Stephany LaRosa for sixth on the all-time runs list last week and needs two more runs scored to pass Kylee Perez (2015-18) and crack the top 5.
Career Slugging Percentage: Brady improved her career slugging percentage mark to .797 over UCLA's last four games.ย That mark is currently good for third all-time.
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Grand Slam for Brady
Maya Brady recorded the fourth grand slam of her career in the second inning of game three of the Utah Series last Sunday.ย The home run marked Brady's first grand slam since her redshirt junior campaign when she cleared the bases versus Missouri at the 2022 Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic.
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A New UCLA Ace
Sophomore Taylor Tinsley has shown consistent improvement since week one of the 2024 season in her new role as UCLA's ace. This season, Tinsley leads the Bruins with a 2.11 ERA and 80 strikeouts over 66.1 innings pitched after totaling just 57.1 innings of work all last season in her All-Pac-12 Freshman Team campaign. Tinsley was named Pac-12 Pitcher of the Week for the first time in her career on Feb. 26 following her performances at the Mary Nutter Classic.
Tinsley at the Mary Nutter: Tinsley allowed just two earned runs across three complete-game performances and 22.0 total innings pitched at the Mary Nutter. Among all the pitchers competing at the Mary Nutter (30 teams participating), Tinsley ranked first in innings pitched (22.0) and strikeouts looking (10) and tied for first in strikeouts (30).
Tinsley vs. Utah: Tinsley picked up two wins, struck out 16 batters and did not allow an earned run over 10.2 innings to help the Bruins to a series sweep of Utah (March 8-10). In her game one victory, Tinsley threw 6.2 innings of shutout ball and allowed only one baserunner into scoring position. She finished her outing with nine strikeouts and surrendered just two hits. She limited the Pac-12 batting average leader entering the series, Haley Denning, to 0-for-6 with two K's.
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The Clutch Gene: Jadelyn Allchin
Graduate outfielder Jadelyn Allchin has recorded both a game-tying and game-winning hit over UCLA's last four games. In game two of the Utah series last Saturday, Allchin stepped to the plate with two outs in the bottom of the seventh and the Bruins trailing by one run, 5-4. Allchin brought home the game-tying run with a single into shallow left-center field. Sophomore Megan Grant came up later in the inning with the walk-off hit.
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In UCLA's Tuesday contest with Rutgers, Allchin faced a base-loaded scenario again with the game tied, 6-6. She cracked the first pitch she saw into the right-center gap to score the walk-off run.
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Allchin's Cannon
Allchin has had a stellar start to her UCLA career. The graduate transfer from Washington (2020-23) has recorded two outfield assists this season: one from left field in the Bruins' 6-2 win over Tennessee on Feb. 25 and one from center field against Oklahoma State on Feb. 11. With the Lady Vols rallying in the top of the third, Allchin gunned down Kiki Milloy attempting to score from second base with a no-hop, bullet throw from left field to Sharlize Palacios at home plate. It was the fifth outfield assist of her career. She now has five career outfield assists.
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9-1-2
Opposing pitchers are faced with a steep task in going through the Bruins' 9-1-2 spots in the batting order which consists of two former Pac-12 Batting Champions in Janelle Meoño and Maya Brady. Since Meoño's return to the lineup on Feb. 24, the combination of 9-1-2 batters over the last 12 games has mostly consisted of Meoño, Allchin and Brady, in that order. Over the last 12 games, UCLA's nine spot has hit for a .393 average and recorded a .514 on-base percentage. The one and two spots have hit for a .359 and .344 average in that span as well. Meoño has hit for a .462 average (12-for-26) since her return.ย
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Meoño's Reached Base Streak
Janelle Meoño has reached base in 12 straight games, beginning with her return to the lineup versus Illinois on Feb. 24. Her longest such streak in 2023 was six straight games to end the season. Megan Grant recorded the Bruins' longest reached base streak last season with 24 straight games.
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Palacios Power
Catcher Sharlize Palacios is tied for the team lead in home runs with six and ranks fourth in the Pac-12 with a .719 slugging percentage. She is coming off the 11th three-hit performance of her career against Rutgers last Tuesday, recording a pair of RBI hits with a double in the win. Defensively, Palacios has yet to record an error behind the dish and has thrown out four runners attempting to steal.
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Bless Ya, Thessa
Senior infielder Thessa Malau'ulu is enjoying the best season in her career to start 2024. After missing the entirety of the 2023 season due to an injury, Malau'ulu has produced at the bottom of the Bruins' lineup with a .351 batting average, good for fourth on the team. She also sports a .478 on-base percentage and has notched three doubles. In her first at-bat of the Utah series last Sunday, Malau'ulu golfed an 0-2 pitch into shallow right field with the bases loaded to give UCLA the lead for the remainder of the afternoon.
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Standout Performance For Terry
Freshman Kaitlyn Terry struck out a career-high 12 batters in her complete-game shutout over Weber State at the Judi Garman Classic on March 2. The 12 strikeouts are tied with Megan Faraimo (2019) and Rachel Garcia (2017) for the most by a Bruins' freshman over the last 15 years. Donna Kerr was the last UCLA freshman to rack up 12+ strikeouts, recording 15 in a win over Northwestern on March 9, 2008.
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Perfect vs. the Big Ten
UCLA went a perfect 6-0 versus its scheduled Big Ten Conference opponents this season with wins over Maryland, Nebraska, Northwestern, Illinois, Michigan and Rutgers.
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Players Mentioned
UCLA Softball Postgame - Coach Inouye-Perez & Players, vs. Tennessee (June 1, 2025)
Sunday, June 01
UCLA Softball Postgame - Coach Inouye-Perez & Players, vs. Texas Tech (May 31, 2025)
Saturday, May 31
Highlights - UCLA Softball vs. Oregon (May 29, 2025)
Thursday, May 29
UCLA Softball Postgame - Coach Inouye-Perez & Players, vs. Oregon (May 29, 2025)
Thursday, May 29