Bumped. -N

UCLA Softball was recognized by the Pac-10 by annoucing Andrea Duran as Player of the Year, and Sue Enquist as Coach of the Year (Her third Pac-10 award, matching the 3 National Coach of the Year awards on her resume).  Duran has racked up some pretty amazing stats this year:

UCLA's leadoff hitter, Duran currently leads the team in batting average (.352), hits (58), RBI (36), slugging percentage (.703), and stolen bases (18). She ranks 10th in the nation with 1.00 runs per game.

It's quite an accomplishment to lead this team in so many categories when you consider the number of quality of players we have on our roster.

The article also mentions this interesting fact:

The first softball inductee into UCLA's Hall of Fame, Enquist was the first Bruin softball All-American as a player in 1978. She was a 2006 inductee to the National Fastpitch Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

So she basically planted the seed for our (unambiguous) dynasty as a player, and watched it grow into fruition as a coach.  Truely amazing.  They start their NCAA play this Friday at 5pm at UCLA against Missouri State.

In other news, baseball (28-21, 10-8 Pac-10) defeated Irvine last night despite some apparently suspect pitching.  This last weekend two pitchers played complete games against sc, but we couldn't get it together against Irvine until the end.  The Daily Bruin reports:

Freshman Jason Novak, in his newly cemented role as the No. 4 starter, struggled with his control early and never found his rhythm. Novak walked three batters in only 3.1 innings of work, and giving up hits after falling behind in the count. He was tagged for two runs in the second inning that gave the Anteaters (32-19, 7-8 Big West) a 2-1 lead.

Novak retired the first batter in the fourth, then proceeded to walk a batter, throw a wild pitch, and walk the next batter as he was promptly relieved by redshirt junior Paul Oseguera.

Oseguera did much better, striking out 6 hitters and scattering hits, and Hector Ambriz pitched relief in the 9th to seal the win on some hot hitting.