LOS ANGELES — Arizona and UCLA have had a longstanding rivalry spanning decades, including heated battles for both conference and NCAA softball championships.
Between 1986 and 2010, the Bruins and Wildcats won a combined 16 NCAA titles. Five times, the teams played each other in the final series; Arizona won four of them.
Lately, though, the rivalry has been a little more one-sided. UCLA has won 12 of the last 15 regular-season series against the Wildcats and has an all-time record of 76-56 against the UA.
Arizona has a losing record against just three other schools: Bradley (0-1), Weber State (0-2) and James Madison (0-2).
“We’ve had some very good battles and some very good talent on both sides of the ball,” UA coach Mike Candrea said as his team prepared for a three-game series starting Friday at Easton Stadium in Westwood. “It’s always a hard-fought battle, no matter what year it is or who we have.”
The third-ranked Wildcats can clinch the Pac-12 title with a weekend sweep of the 12th-ranked Bruins. UCLA isn’t in the running for a conference title, but it can give an assist to Utah, which has six games remaining to catch Arizona in the standings.
The magnitude of a series against the Bruins isn’t lost on Arizona’s players, many of whom grew up Southern California with dreams of wearing blue and gold.
“I’m so excited,” said UA catcher Dejah Mulipola, a freshman from Garden Grove. “UCLA has been a great team, and it actually was one of my dream schools growing up.”
Added first baseman Jessie Harper, a freshman from Stevenson Ranch: “I’ve grown up going to UCLA games and watching them, playing in that environment, it’s going to be a dogfight for all seven innings, or more.”
Harper and Mulipola will experience their first series with the Bruins. Their older teammates describe a showdown that’s wholly different from a typical weekend series.
“One hundred percent” different, said UA senior pitcher Danielle O’Toole, who will likely start both Friday and Sunday.
In 2016, O’Toole’s first experience against the Bruins since transferring from San Diego State, the UA ace learned the hard way about what the UCLA-Arizona rivalry really is like.
O’Toole pitched one of her worst games as a Wildcat in Game 1, allowing seven earned runs and 12 hits in 5ª innings of an 8-6 loss. The Bruins took two of three games at Hillenbrand Stadium.
“I had already given up a couple hits and we were down by some runs and I just remember looking as runners are going by me,” said O’Toole, who is 26-3 this season with a 0.95 ERA.
O’Toole, from Upland in Southern California’s Inland Empire, admits she was “mentally unprepared” for the series but will be better this time.
“I’m not afraid to say it, because it was not a good outing for me,” she said.
“I just didn’t realize the immense meaning it had to everybody. … The amount of tradition that’s happened between them, I didn’t grow up understanding it and I wasn’t here for four years so I didn’t really get it. Then when I did, I was like ‘oh, my goodness.’”
Relative to the rivalry, the tables have turned somewhat in the success Arizona has found this season.
UCLA (37-12, 11-7 Pac-12) may be out of the running for a conference title, but it’s still having a successful season.
The Bruins, like Arizona, have been steadied by a deep lineup and productive pitching staff.
Kylie Perez leads the conference with 66 hits and is fifth with a .400 batting average.
Madeline Jelenicki has 51 RBIs, placing her third in the league behind Arizona’s Alyssa Palomino and Katiyana Mauga.
Delaney Spaulding, hitting .361, is tied for second place with 13 doubles; Brianna Tautalafua is fourth, behind Mauga, Harper and Palomino, with 12 home runs.
UCLA has a 2.61 team ERA behind redshirt freshman Rachel Garcia, who has a 15-7 record and 2.02 ERA.
A sweep will be difficult, but the Wildcats certainly could use their first series win over the Bruins in six years. Consider: since that 2011 win, UCLA has outscored Arizona 112-55.
“There’s a lot of alumni that have spent a lot of blood, sweat and tears beating those guys and playing those guys,” Candrea said. “So it’s definitely one of those games on the schedule you circle.”
