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By Michael Sneag

Daily Bruin Contributor

The fun and games are over and it is all business now.

After the No. 2-ranked Bruins enjoyed a fun-filled alumni game last Saturday, they are preparing to open the season by helping Cal State Northridge to host the Early Bird Classic, and they are focused.

“We’ve been training hard and didn’t really worry about the (alumni game),” head coach Sue Enquist said. “My clock and our schedule is based on what starts this Friday.”

UCLA has four games scheduled, the first one being on Friday against Louisiana-Monroe at 1:30 p.m. They follow that up with two games on Saturday against San Diego State at 11 a.m. and Long Beach State at 3 p.m. They conclude the tournament on Sunday against San Jose State at 1 p.m.

Senior Amanda Freed and sophomore Keira Goerl are expected to carry the pitching load for the year, and will probably pitch two games each.

Their first opponent, Louisiana-Monroe, is a complete unknown; the Bruins have never faced them. They finished with a 31-22 overall record playing in the Southland Conference and return only nine players from last year’s team, but have been picked to finish second in their conference.

No. 23-ranked San Diego State and Long Beach State are very familiar faces, but the Bruins hold decisive edges in both series. They are 49-2 all-time against SDSU, including two wins in last year’s Regionals at Easton Stadium. LBSU hasn’t fared much better as the Bruins have a 53-6 edge, including a 7-0 win last year.

The team knows that although this is an early tournament, and it won’t count toward league standings, it is still important to get off to a good start to build the momentum they need to reach the lofty goals that are expected of this year’s team.

“We are not focused on the end of the year because we have so many things to work on at this point,” Enquist said. “The team is learning how important discipline is and worrying about keeping their core fundamentals intact.”