UCLA softball coaches inspire nations most

UCLA’s Megan Grant is just like every other faculty senior her age.

Sure, it won’t look like it from the skin trying in. After all, how can somebody who has hit 89 home runs across her faculty profession — one short of the Bruins’ document — and helped one of softball’s most dynamic offensive groups examine off a listing of new NCAA and program information relate to the other sociology majors in her courses at UCLA?

Grant disappears into her head sometimes, one thing she readily acknowledges. But her resolution won’t be as accessible to all the other “Twilight”-binging, video-game-loving UCLA college students. She has coach Kelly Inouye-Perez keep her, the Division I home run queen, from getting caught up in the second.

“She does a really great job with just keeping me neutral,” Grant said. “Sometimes I may get in a little crazy headspace, but she does a really great job helping me get out of those feelings that I’m stuck in, and she pulls me out and makes me realize, ‘Hey, as long as I can be who I am, that’s enough.’”

Inouye-Perez and assistant coach Lisa Fernandez are some of the Bruins’ largest keys to success as the staff prepares for the start of the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City. The Bruins will face Texas Tech at 4 p.m. PDT Sunday in a sport airing on ESPN.

UCLA closed its tremendous regional with a single-season home run document (200) and a document for WCWS appearances (34).

Grant is no stranger to the work vital to see that stage of success. But even in her uncommon unhealthy at-bats and struggles, Inouye-Perez and Fernandez permit her the space to fail. After all, there are 9 locations in the lineup. One individual alone isn’t indicative of UCLA’s wins or losses, Inouye-Perez says.

“We really focus on succeeding and learning how to fail, so they can just get to the next pitch,” Inouye-Perez said. “We talk about the ability to slow the game down, to take deep breaths, to be able to enjoy the moment. It’s not on any one Bruin.”

That mentality doesn’t exist in a void. Inouye-Perez and Fernandez labored in tandem to create the powerhouse staff, which is in the midst of one of the best offensive seasons in D1 softball historical past.

Inouye-Perez is in her twentieth 12 months teaching the Bruins and is the only NCAA softball participant to win a championship as a participant and a coach. She led the 2010 and 2019 groups to those titles. Meanwhile, Fernandez, in her twenty eighth 12 months teaching at UCLA and her fourth as affiliate coach, has taken main accountability for hitting — one of the Bruins’ largest keys to success. The staff leads the nation in batting average (.385), RBIs per sport (10.38) and on-base share (.496).

“Me and her, we’re workhorses,” Grant said of Fernandez. “We work all day after practice hours together, and it just means the world. You can tell that she loves the game and her little nuggets that she teaches me.”

The Bruins’ success in the batter’s box also has helped raise the tide of a staff that might’ve fallen into many pitfalls. The staff has only one main pitcher, Taylor Tinsley, who’s spent the most time in the circle in the NCAA event with 29-1/3 innings pitched. The Bruins are also younger. Of the 21 gamers on the roster, only eight are seniors, redshirt juniors or juniors.

Seniors Jordan Woolery and Grant are one tempo to break NCAA information, but the underclassmen aren’t far behind. Redshirt freshman Aleena Garcia set a single-game RBI document (7) when she hit two three-run homers in UCLA’s 14-4 win over Central Florida in the Super Regional.

Much like Inouye-Perez, Fernandez’s best attribute is her capability to be a sounding board for Grant.

“You get her enthusiasm too,” Grant said. “If you mess up, she’s always there to have your back. She celebrates your wins as well, and she gets very ecstatic about it. It almost makes me laugh, because it makes things so much more fun. She just brings that out of people.”

Even when groups lose to UCLA and Fernandez, it’s still a constructive expertise for some.

UCLA affiliate head coach Lisa Fernandez huddles close to the mound with beginning pitcher Taylor Tinsley (23) during the fifth inning of a comeback win over California Baptist. The Lancers scored 10 runs in the fifth, but Tinsley bounced back from outing.

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

Central Florida coach Cindy Ball-Malone thought of Fernandez one of the best softball gamers ever, calling her the Michael Jordan of the game. But what makes her actually spectacular, Ball-Malone said, is that Fernandez is an even better coach.

“She’s just a winner,” Ball-Malone said. “I kind of just want to rub up on her or something to get that mojo because she’s got it. Her attention to detail, her belief in the smallest things, that’s why she is so good at what she does.”

It’s no marvel then why so many people, regardless of staff affiliation, need to see UCLA’s coaches in individual.

If you’re a half of the Bruins, you get to be taught from people who have introduced the varsity championships. And, if you’re attempting to beat UCLA, there’s no better accomplishment than saying you beat Inouye-Perez and Fernandez’s record-breaking staff.

“[Fernandez is] going to push you, and it might be uncomfortable, but dang it, you have no choice but to get better,” Ball-Malone said. “If you can get through her, you can get through anybody, and I’m going to learn from that so I can bring that to this program.”