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UCLA Softball Week in Review 20210322

This weekend's games between UCLA and UC Berkeley were canceled due to COVID-19 developments within the UCLA program.

Around the Pac 12

UCLA (19-1, 3-0) and Oregon remain tied for the conference lead after Oregon (23-1, 3-0) swept 3 from LMU.

They will be joined by Stanford (22-4, 3-0) who beat BYU midweek then swept Utah (11-13, 0-6).

ASU (19-8, 2-4) rallied back from being swept by UCLA splitting with Washington (24-4, 3-2)

Arizona (18-5, 3-2) recovered from losing two conference games to Washington by sweeping Oregon St. (13-11, 2-4)

Next Games:

Apr 2 (Fri) 11:30 AM PT Team Mexico

Apr 2 (Fri) 2:30 PM PT at Loyola Marymount

Apr 3 (Sat) 2:00 PM PT at San Diego

Apr 3 (Sat) 4:30 PM PT at San Diego

Next Week Preview

These games will be dependent on UCLA clearing Covid protocols.

UCLA will open with an exhibition game against the Mexican National Team followed by a rematch with Loyola Marymount (4/2) and then visits University of San Diego (4/3) for a doubleheader.

Team Mexico is loaded with several familiar faces. Pitchers Dallas Escobedo (ASU 2014, Cal St. Fullerton pitching coach) won a National championship as freshman (2011) sweeping Florida, Taylor McQuillin (UA 2019) beat UCLA in the 2019 regular season then lost to the Bruins in the CWS, and Danielle O'Toole (UA 2017) went 1-1 against the Bruins in 2017.

Pac 12 alumni Chelsea Gonzales (ASU 2017), Sashel Palacios (ASU 2017), and Anissa Urtez (Utah 2017) will also play. College World Series foes Sierra Romero (Michigan 2016) lead Michigan to runner up in 2015 beating UCLA along the way and Sydney Romero (Oklahoma 2019) led Oklahoma to the championships in 2016 and 2017 and runner up to UCLA 2019.

Like team USA, Team Mexico college students Nicole Mendes (Oklahoma 2021) and Aaliyah Jordan (UCLA 2022) will be playing with their respective schools.

Loyola Marymount (10-16) is led by our very own Taira Flowers (nee Mims) who left Cal State University Northridge after 10 seasons with assistant coach Mysha Sataraka (UCLA 2016). The Lions are struggling this year (.229 BA, 4.84 ERA) and have an eight-game losing streak. LMU will face California Baptist University in a double header on Wednesday and Team Mexico early Friday morning before playing UCLA in the night cap.

The Lions lost two games earlier in the season to the Bruins (11-1, 6-1) who were without Rachel Garcia. In the first game, Holly Azevedo (5 innings, 2 H, 1 R, 1K) pitched a perfect game through 3 innings enroute to a complete game victory. The offense pummeled the Lions with 6 runs in the bottom of the first and 5 runs in the bottom of the 4th for an 11-1 (5) run rule victory. In the second game of the twin bill, Lexi Sosa (5 innings, 2 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 2 K) won her first start of the year. The offense was relentless scoring runs in every inning except the 4th.

UCLA faces University of San Diego (8-15) in a double header on Saturday afternoon. The Bruins beat the Toreros (4-0) in 2020 as Lexi Sosa, Julie Rodriguez, and Holly Azevedo pitched a combined shutout.

First year head coach MJ Knighten added Shay Knighten to her staff. USD is an extremely young squad (14 freshmen, 6 Sophomores) without any seniors. The Toreros are hitting .232 and have a 3.36 team ERA. USD are led by a pair of Freshman, pitcher McKenna Braegelmann (4-1, 1.62 ERA) and Malia Benson (.317 BA)



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