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Should I use the D-word, or is it still too early?

You may say it’s only two championships in a row.

You may say this team is losing too many important seniors.

You may say this team underachieved during the regular season.

But think about it for a second.

This core group of players on the UCLA softball team is establishing itself as a dynasty.

There, I said it – dynasty.

It’s not easy to go back-to-back in a sport like softball.

But despite all of the teams lining up to try to beat UCLA when it counts, the Bruins still prevailed.

Two years in a row.

They’ve won nine World Series games in a row.

That’s nine straight wins against the top eight teams in the country.

Just think of all the things that have to go right for that to happen.

• Without a Kristen Dedmon pinch-hit single, the game may still be tied at 1-1, in like the 81st inning.

How shocking was that hit?

Dedmon had only hit .191 for the year, with only six RBI.

Not exactly earth-shattering.

But she, like many others in the World Series, stepped up when her team needed her the most.

• The Bruins only got two hits Monday night, but still managed to score three runs.

Very unusual.

Cal pitcher Kelly Anderson had thrown a perfect game for four innings and looked dominant. The Bruins never really figured her out, with the exception of Dedmon and Claire Sua, who homered to give UCLA its first run.

But the rest of the team got patient. Counts started to go deeper as the game went on, and the Bruins fought their way to a walk and a hit by pitch, which would both score on Dedmon’s hit. In other words, the Bruins were efficient, as every hitter they had that didn’t make an out either scored or drove in a run.

• The Bruins allowed 11 hits, but only one run, in their win Sunday over Stanford. That’s about as impressive as UCLA’s offensive effort on Monday, but for the opposite reason.

Pitcher Keira Goerl had to constantly work out of jams (like a bases loaded, one-out situation in the 10th), and her defense also helped her out a lot.

Dynasties have things like these happen to them. It’s not luck – it’s skill and talent. Many things went right for last year’s team. They had to win four games in two days and five in three to win the championship.

The Bruins had clutch hitting throughout the postseason and a good defense. They had scrappy, patient hitters and dominant pitching. What more does a team need?

And when I say dynasty, I’m implying this success will continue.

I know fully well the Bruins will lose several players this year.

Goerl, Sua, Julie Hoshizaki, Stephanie Ramos and Amanda Simpson will no longer get the chance to play at Easton Stadium.

But as good as those players were, it’s not that big of a loss.

Hoshizaki and Simpson were primarily used as pinch-runners.

Ramos and Sua will be replaced by the platoon that was used to fill the bottom of the lineup, or by a star recruiting class.

And while Goerl may have been the most prolific pitcher in UCLA history, the future may be better.

Anjelica Selden, an incoming freshman next year, had maybe the most unreal softball stats ever in high school: 650 innings, 1,429 strikeouts, 35 no-hitters, 4 earned runs.

Wow.

Winning NCAA Championships in prime-time on ESPN the last two years will help future recruiting classes, too.

This team is only getting better.

Truly a dynasty in the making.

E-mail Quiñonez at gquinonez@media.ucla.edu.

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