No Question, UCLA Earns No. 1 Seeding

When the NCAA softball World Series begins today at Oklahoma City, one thing will be clear. The favorite.

Top-seeded UCLA, which opens against eighth-seeded DePaul at 10 a.m., has dominated the nation this year, posting a 59-6 record while leading the Pacific 10 Conference in every offensive category, finishing in the top two in every pitching category and destroying eight team records.

The biggest record-breaker of all the Bruins has been catcher Stacey Nuveman. She leads the nation in home runs with 31 and runs batted in with 90 (both UCLA records) and won the Pac-10 triple crown in the regular season, which earned her the conference player-of-the-year award.

A sophomore, Nuveman already owns the UCLA career home run mark (51), passing the previous record of 30 by Kim Wuest on Feb. 28.

The Bruins have set school season highs in runs scored, total bases, home runs, RBIs, doubles, hits, walks and stolen bases. And while they scored 420 runs this season, the Bruins have given up only 87.

Conference pitcher of the year Courtney Dale and freshman Amanda Freed combined in the regular season for 52 victories, a 1.05 earned-run average and 344 strikeouts. Dale’s 28 victories led the Pac-10. If those statistics weren’t intimidating enough for the other seven teams at Oklahoma City, the Bruins are 15-3 this season against six of the World Series teams, with fifth-seeded Southern Mississippi the only team the Bruins have yet to play. All three losses were to Pac-10 teams, one to Arizona and two to Washington. The first loss to Washington ended the Bruins’ 35-game winning streak to start the season, two victories short of the NCAA record for most consecutive victories.

Finding a Bruin weakness is difficult, but if there is one, it is World Series experience. Four Bruins have never been to the World Series and only three have been to two. Last year UCLA failed to make it to the World Series, and the seven years since its last NCAA championship in 1992 is its longest stretch without a title since the Bruins won their first in 1982.

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NCAA Softball World Series

* What: NCAA Division I World Series.

* When: Today through Monday.

* Where: Oklahoma City.

* Teams (by seeding): No. 1 UCLA, No. 2 Arizona, No. 3 Washington, No. 4 Fresno State, No. 5 Southern Mississippi, No. 6 Arizona State, No. 7 California, No. 8 DePaul.

* TV: Semifinals--Sunday, 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., ESPN2. Final--Monday, 10 a.m., ESPN2.