Huskies entertain first-place Bruins

Apr 29, 2009, 12:00 AM

Jen Salling took cuts in the batting cage before Washington's practice yesterday, hitting tennis balls off a machine during her designated personal hitting time as the rest of her teammates filed in. It's become a regular occurrence for UW players to come to the field on their own before the team practices during the week. "Everybody has their own hitting time," said UW head coach Heather Tarr. "Everybody always tries to get a little extra work in because just coming to practice doesn't give you much individual attention." And if UCLA ace Megan Langenfeld gets the ball against the Huskies today, that extra work will be worth every swing. Langenfeld has emerged as one of the conference's more dominant pitchers, a surprise considering that her outings this season have been limited due to injury. She's the only regular starter in the conference with an undefeated record (11-0), and her 1.11 ERA is second in the conference only to the UW's Danielle Lawrie. Two sterling performances against the Huskies may be the highlights of Langenfeld's season. She shut them out in back-to-back games April 10 and 11, even no-hitting them in a 10-0 win after emerging victorious in an 11-inning, 2-0 pitcher's duel the day before. She doesn't have overpowering stuff, either, but she locates her pitches well, Tarr said, and doesn't fall behind in the count. "Practice [yesterday] definitely has the focus of hitting the inside pitch because that's what [Langenfeld's] been known to throw," Lawrie said. "We've seen her twice, so I think [today] is going to be a little bit of a different game than it was three weeks ago." If it is to be different, the Huskies will have to hit the ball - something that continues to be a serious issue. They were shut out again Sunday by Arizona, marking the seventh time they've been blanked this season. They've only lost two games this year in which they scored at least one run. A lot of it had to do with Langenfeld the first time around against UCLA. But the first-place Bruins have also been tearing the cover off the ball recently, routing ASU last weekend by outscoring the Sun Devils 19-5 in two games. "They are definitely on a hot streak right now," Lawrie said. "So that's what I'm looking at tomorrow as we need to stop it and be like, 'You know what, you're coming into our house - this is going to happen.' And I'm going to do everything in my power to stop their offense, which has been doing really well lately." Although nobody ever questioned the Bruins' offense, Tarr said, few expected them to pitch quite this well. "For them, it was just a matter of their pitching coming through because they were always scoring runs," Tarr said. "It was just a matter of holding the teams that they were facing from a pitching standpoint." Note: The UW softball team will hold a home-run derby at the conclusion of its Thursday practice at 4 p.m. for any UW students who want to participate. Assistant coach Lance Glasoe will be throwing, and teams will be formed to determine winners. A free barbecue will follow. Reach sports editor Christian Caple at sports@dailyuw.com.

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