![\"(Karla](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/sp.softball.pre_.4.14.26.KCF_.B.jpg\")
Senior infielder Jordan Woolery smiles as she jogs toward home plate. Woolery leads the Bruins in extra-base hits this season with 37. (Karla Cardenas-Felipe\/Daily Bruin staff)<\/p>\nThe Bruins are averaging 3.2 home runs a game. <\/p>\n
But they hammered 18 across just three games last weekend. <\/p>\n
No. 8 UCLA softball (37-5, 16-2 Big Ten) will face Cal Baptist (34-13, 10-2 WAC) on Tuesday at Easton Stadium and Long Beach State (24-16, 12-6 Big West) on Wednesday at LBSU Softball Complex. UCLA is coming off a series sweep against Illinois, where the Westwood squad bested its opponent by nine or more runs in each contest. <\/p>\n
Eight Bruins connected on a homer in the series against the Fighting Illini, powering the squad to 17-0, 10-1 and 18-0 victories. <\/p>\n
Redshirt freshman infielder Aleena Garcia, the reigning Softball America Defender of the Week, led UCLA with four homers throughout the weekend. She now has 13 on across the season, tied for fourth on the squad. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not focusing on the power \u2013 I\u2019m focusing on the plan that my coaches are telling me,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cTrusting all the work I put in during the week, and I know I\u2019m good enough to hit every pitch that\u2019s coming at me, so, as long as I\u2019m all in on the plan and trying to hit the ball hard, then the power comes with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Westwood squad\u2019s lineup was also led by seniors infielder Jordan Woolery and utility Megan Grant, who combined for five homers against the Fighting Illini. <\/p>\n
Woolery boasts a team-high .504 batting average with Grant behind her at .486. The duo is second and third in the country for home runs hit, with Grant recording 29 four-baggers and Woolery with 23. <\/p>\n
Senior infielder Jordan Woolery smiles as she jogs toward home plate. Woolery leads the Bruins in extra-base hits this season with 37. (Karla Cardenas-Felipe\/Daily Bruin staff)<\/p>\n
The pitching rotation also had success in the series, with sophomore Brynne Nally allowing six hits in as many innings pitched, redshirt junior Sydney Somerndike allowing three hits in five innings and senior Taylor Tinsley allowing two across six frames. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s been specific things that they\u2019ve (the pitching staff) been striving to be able to do,\u201d said coach Kelly Inouye-Perez. \u201cOur defense does a great job getting them out of these situations.\u201d <\/p>\n
First up in the midweek-matchup schedule is Cal Baptist, which currently sits in first place in the WAC standings. The squad\u2019s games are not as high scoring as the Bruins\u2019, as the Lancers reached double-digit runs in only on of their last 26 games. <\/p>\n
However, the Lancers\u2019 pitching staff boasts a 2.88 ERA, lower than the Bruins\u2019 4.18. Two of the pitchers out of the Lancers\u2019 bullpen have recorded double-digit wins, whereas Tinsley is the only Bruin to achieve the feat.<\/p>\n
Cal Baptist faced Wisconsin on Feb. 27, where the former recorded a 4-1 win. The Bruins also played the Badgers this season in the Big Ten season-opener series from March 6-8. Inouye-Perez\u2019s squad bested the Badgers in a series sweep that included two run-rule victories. <\/p>\n
\u201cAs an offensive unit, we pride ourselves on making the first punch, striking first,\u201d Grant said. \u201cThe coaching staff has prepared us tremendously. That way we can go out and do our thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"(William](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/sp.softball.pre_.4.14.26.WG_.C.jpg\")
Associate head coach Lisa Fernandez talks to her players as they huddle around her. Fernandez served as one of the four general managers in the Athletes Unlimited Softball League during its inaugural season last summer. (William Gauvin\/Daily Bruin)<\/p>\n
UCLA\u2019s second midweek matchup is against Long Beach State, where Nally spent her first collegiate season. <\/p>\n
Long Beach State faced No. 1 Oklahoma earlier in the season and handed the team one of its four losses this season. But Hawai\u02bbi, whom UCLA beat 9-5 on April 2, bested Long Beach State in two out of three contests.<\/p>\n
The Beach have only recorded 16 home runs this year compared to the Bruins\u2019 program record \u2013 and the second-most blasts in the country \u2013 134. Just like Cal Baptist, though, Long Beach State holds a better ERA than UCLA with a 4.07 mark. <\/p>\n
UCLA boasts the third-highest batting average in the country at a .386 clip, higher than both Cal Baptist and Long Beach State. <\/p>\n
The Bruins\u2019 bats continue to scorch, and the home run derby could persist through their upcoming midweek matchups Tuesday and Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to take our momentum that we\u2019ve gotten from this week, make sure we\u2019re humble, respecting the game, getting after it when we get back to LA,\u201d Grant said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Bruins are averaging 3.2 home runs a game. But they hammered 18 across just three games last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267851,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-267850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}