The UCLA Bruins don’t bother naming team captains in softball. The Bruins, it would appear, have been too busy winning a record 11 NCAA championships to get around to it.

If UCLA had named a captain this year, coach Kelly Inouye-Perez says the Bruins had the ideal candidate: senior third baseman Mysha Sataraka, a former Punahou School standout.

“If you asked anyone on the team,” Inouye-Perez said, “they would clearly say it’s a no-brainer: Mysha is the leader of this team.”

Never was that more obvious than last weekend against Oregon. After the young Bruins were pounded 8-1 in the Super Regional opener, Sataraka’s clutch play on the field and spirited attitude on the sidelines keyed a pair of 2-1 wins over the host Ducks to send UCLA back to the Women’s College World Series for the second year in a row.

“My heartbeat … I’m still shaking!” Sataraka exclaimed after she finally stopped racing about the field in ecstasy and bear-hugging anyone and everyone wearing blue last Sunday in Eugene.

Sataraka scored the winning run in Sunday’s first game after leading off the bottom of the ninth with a double (UCLA was the designated home team that game). In the championship affair, Sataraka’s fourth-inning double plated the winning run before a sellout crowd of 2,517.

“She wants to come through to help others,” Inouye-Perez said. “She’s all about the team.”

Sataraka leads the Bruins (40-14-1) into World Series action today against Auburn (54-10) in Oklahoma City, Okla. ESPN televises the contest at 8:30 a.m.

Sataraka has started all 55 games and leads the Bruins with career bests in slugging percentage (.763), on-base percentage (.561), doubles (tied for first with 10) and walks (59). Sataraka leads the Pac-12 Conference in walks and on-base percentage and ranks fourth and 10th, respectively, in the nation.

Her batting average has improved for the fourth consecutive year (.374, third on the team). She also ranks among UCLA’s leaders in home runs (13) and runs batted in (52). The latter two marks are three short of her career highs.

Sataraka, a first-team selection in All-Pac-12 voting, leads the Bruins in batting in the NCAA tournament with a .400 average (6-for-15) after six games. She also led the Bruins in hitting at the Super Regional (.500, 4-for-8).

Inouye-Perez says the impressive statistics only begin to tell of Sataraka’s value to the team.

“She’s very proud to be part of this program,” the coach said. “She’s proud to represent her family and where she came from.

“She puts a lot of work behind everything she does. She knows she’s representing something bigger than herself.”

Inouye-Perez has enjoyed watching Sataraka develop into a mature young woman four years after arriving at UCLA as a “very shy, very quiet, reserved” freshman.

“It’s been an amazing opportunity,” Sataraka said. “I was just blessed to have the opportunity to leave the islands. There’s not as many opportunities (in college softball) for people on the islands. I couldn’t run home to mom and dad. If I got homesick, I couldn’t run home to wash the laundry. It was a really quick way to mature, which I am forever grateful for.”

The Bruins have certainly matured since starting the season 9-8, including 1-4 against 2016 College World Series teams. UCLA, seeded 12th in the 64-team NCAA tournament, has won 11 of the past 12 games.

“We’re younger and had our struggles,” Sataraka said. “We could have just said, ‘No, this is not going to work this year.’ But I think we all came together and bought in: ‘Yes, we can. Yes, we can do it.’”

The Bruins, who finished second to Oregon in the Pac-12, find themselves in the familiar role of underdogs in Oklahoma City. UCLA is the second-lowest seed in the field. The Bruins have the worst record among the eight teams. Auburn eliminated UCLA at last year’s World Series.

Sataraka doesn’t care about that nonsense. After all, she’s got a national championship to win.

“Every one of us believes we can do that,” she said.

Sataraka, a political science major, says she’s uncertain about her career plans. Right now, her main goal is to race back to Los Angeles in time to go through graduation ceremonies after the World Series. Title trophy in hand, of course.

“That,” she says, “would be the perfect scenario.”