How UCLA’s Lisa Fernandez built historic offense ‘to break records’

In the history of college softball, there might be only one thing more terrifying than facing UCLA’s Lisa Fernandez in the pitching circle.

That’s dealing with the batting order she’s constructed at her alma mater.

This is a lineup that includes the most fearsome slugging duo in the game. A leadoff hitter with cleanup power. A No. 9 hitter who gets on base with the regularity of a leadoff hitter.

“At the end of the day,” Fernandez told The California Post, “we want to break records.” 

They’ve done plenty of that, led by a dreaded offense that’s about to be unleashed once more at the College World Series.

Seeded eighth nationally in the double-elimination tournament, the Bruins (52-8) will face top-seeded Alabama (54-7) at 4 p.m. PT Thursday at Devon Park in Oklahoma City after having rewritten the offensive record book.

Blending power with efficiency, UCLA has set single-season NCAA records with 200 home runs, 651 runs scored, 623 RBIs, 1,355 total bases and 323 extra-base hits. Megan Grant and Jordan Woolery, the twosome known as the Bruin Bombers, have combined for 74 homers — more than 261 teams.

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Behind the record-setting offense is a hitting coach who once broke all sorts of records herself while starring for the Bruins.

As a senior in 1993, Fernandez led the nation with a .510 batting average and a 0.25 ERA, driven to show she could accomplish seemingly impossible heights as a hitter and pitcher.

“Somebody told me I couldn’t,” Fernandez said, “so nothing better than proving people wrong.”

Now in her 28th season as an assistant coach with the Bruins — but only her third running the offense — Fernandez has channeled that same passion into procuring greatness from her players.

It all starts with a simple objective.

As she met with reporters last weekend, her team having just piled up 23 runs in two games, UCLA coach Kelly Inouye-Perez asked the players who flanked her about the directive from their hitting coach.

Responded Aleena Garcia and Alexis Ramirez, in unison: “Touch first base.”

They have rarely stopped there on a team leading the nation in scoring (10.85 runs per game), slugging percentage (.836), on-base percentage (.496) and walks (317).

Fernandez’s favorite records are the team’s otherworldly OPS and on-base percentage because they reflect how often her players have met their objective.

Extracting those numbers has required a gradual evolution from a coach who came to understand that success didn’t always come as innately for others as it did for her.

“What I saw as a player, I never realized was maybe that something most players don’t see,” Fernandez, 55, said with a laugh, “and realizing that, wow, I might have to teach these things and pushing myself to learn how to teach those things.”

That meant increasingly embracing the mental aspect of the game — how players process information and the best way to slow things down and simplify approaches to get them as confident and comfortable as they can be at the plate.

At the same time, Fernandez demanded production from everyone in the lineup, not just the stars. The result has been a batting order without a discernible drop-off.

“A lot of the times, coaches could hop on two or three of their favorite players and then just realize that the rest are just off fending for themselves,” Grant said, “but I think what coach Lisa does is that she really cares about the person but she also cares about the game so much that she would never let anyone play below their level of what she knows they’re capable of.”

For Grant, whose 40 homers are a single-season NCAA record, that meant letting her play loose with her approach at the plate.

“As we’ve learned throughout my years, the more free I’m playing within my moves, the better I’ll be,” Grant said, “and with that she knows a lot of my good cues — all of my feels, everything — and we have a great communication and relationship between each other to where we can talk about those things.”

UCLA’s clobbering of Central Florida in a Super Regional last weekend put Knights coach Cindy Ball-Malone in the unusual position of wincing and admiring what she was seeing, knowing that she would soon work alongside Fernandez. 

As general manager of the Utah Talons of the Athletes Unlimited Softball League, Fernandez tapped Ball-Malone to coach a roster that includes Woolery and UCLA pitcher Taylor Tinsley. Gushing about her new boss’ passion and attention to detail, Ball-Malone said, “I kind of just want to rub up on her or something to get that mojo.”

There were more compliments to come.

“What’s truly amazing about her,” Ball-Malone said of Fernandez, “is sometimes those people who are really, really good at playing the game — don’t tell her I said this, but she’s probably going to hear it anyway — I think she’s probably even a better coach, and that’s hard to say because she’s literally the best softball player that’s ever played.

“It’s like the Michael Jordan of softball — she’s going to push you and it might be uncomfortable but, like, dangit, you have no choice but to get better.”

That is, unless you have to face her lineup.

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