UCLA softball coach Kelly Inouye-Perez has a photo in her office that takes up nearly an entire wall. It’s from the 2018 NCAA Super Regional that UCLA and Arizona played in.
There was a friendly competition to see which team could bring out more alumni to the game — UCLA ‘won’ with roughly 64 alumni coming out in support compared to Arizona’s 19, remembers Inouye-Perez.
“That’s what we call Bruin Magic,” Inouye-Perez said. “When UCLA softball comes together, there’s an energy that everybody is familiar with.”
The Bruins (28-9 overall, 12-3 Pac-12) are summoning that magic this weekend for their last-ever Pac-12 series against longtime rival Arizona (31-13-1, 12-9) at Easton Stadium with some red-hot momentum behind them.
A series sweep of then-No. 5 Stanford took UCLA from unranked status to No. 6 in the country in the latest ESPN.com/USA Softball rankings and rocketed them to the top of the Pac-12 standings. The Bruins are now on a six-game winning streak.
“We don’t really worry too much about the rankings,” said Jordan Woolery, whose two-run homer lifted UCLA above Stanford on Sunday.
“It is cool, though, because we started really from the trenches this year, so it’s really cool to see the growth and us clawing our way back to the top in the hardest way possible.”
UCLA is expecting sellout crowds at Easton Stadium for all three games this weekend for the storied, multi-layered rivalry.
The Bruins have won the most NCAA titles with 12, but Arizona is right behind with eight. The two programs battled back and forth in national championship games from 1988 to 1997 and later on, Inouye-Perez won her first national championship as a coach against Arizona in 2010.
Inouye-Perez and associate head coach Lisa Fernandez are both UCLA softball alumni and Arizona head coach Caitlin Lowe was a four-time All-American as a Wildcat. The coaches have lived the rivalry, which deepens the emotions.
“If you look back at the history,” Inouye-Perez said, “Man, some of those games — although I don’t remember the score, I remember what it felt like. You had to literally keep swinging and keep throwing punches. It was last person standing. It was a little bit of a bloodbath every single time that you played.”
There are currently two Arizona transfers on UCLA’s roster in redshirt seniors Janelle Meoño and Sharlize Palacios, who helped the Bruins complete a series sweep of the Wildcats last season.
UCLA will be dealing with an Arizona team that can bring the hits this weekend. The Wildcats rank 13th in the NCAA in team batting average at .329 and freshman Regan Shockey is tied for sixth nationally in hits with 68.
Sophomore pitcher Taylor Tinsley, who will start on Friday, has been leading the bullpen this season with a 1.99 ERA, a 13-8 record and two saves across 116 1/3 innings. She was named NFCA Pitcher of the Week on Tuesday after winning all three games against Stanford. Freshman Kaitlyn Terry holds a 1.97 ERA with a 12-0 record. The lefty adds to the challenges that the Bruins can dole out to opposing hitters.
“I don’t throw nearly as hard as KT does, so it’s definitely a different look whenever you get both of us, especially if you’re facing both of us in the same game,” Tinsley said. “We’re both similar with our pitches, but we can work different sides of the plate at different angles. We definitely complement each other very well.”
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Maya Brady owns the best batting average out of all the Bruins, hitting .375, and has a team-leading 41 RBIs in addition to 11 home runs (tied for the team lead with Palacios).
Megan Grant is hitting .368 with 23 RBIs and a team-high nine doubles. She doubled in all three games against Stanford and went 5-for-10 in the series.
This weekend will conclude with Senior Night celebrations on Sunday, closing a separate chapter of UCLA softball in addition to the finale of one of the most intense Pac-12 sports rivalries that has produced so much Bruin Magic.
“When we come into the field and in the clubhouse, we see the Olympians, the past ‘nattys’ and all the Bruin greats on the wall in the outfield,” Woolery said. “It’s really cool to see and it upholds the standard that we have. You just want to keep that legacy going.”