5 Teams to Watch for in College Softball This Weekend
We have reached the final few weeks of conference play for teams in the 2018 College softball season. This upcoming weekend will be filled with conference rivalry games, Top 25 matchups, and all of the teams are fighting for the top spots in their conference. Below are five teams to watch for this upcoming weekend.
No. 1 UCLA (45-3, 15-3 Pac-12)
The UCLA Bruins visit the California Golden Bears this weekend and host No. 7 Arizona State to close out the regular season with a series starting on May 10th. The No. 1 ranked Bruins competed in a weekend round-robin tournament last weekend and finished 5-0. They then took on Cal State Fullerton on Tuesday and secured the 5-3 win. The win locked up the Bruins 30-0 2018 regular season record against non-conference opponents. As a team, UCLA is batting .352 and is led by Aaliyah Jordan’s .472 batting average and .789 slugging percentage. The Bruins have three players batting over .400 and have five additional players batting over .300. The pitching staff holds a combined 1.77 ERA on the season with 324 strikeouts and a .194 batting average against in 309.1 innings pitched. Rachel Garcia holds a 1.10 ERA of her own and is 17-1 on the season for the Bruins. The Golden Bears are 34-13 on the season and 7-10 in the Pac-12. The weekend series is set to kick off on Friday.
No. 2 Oregon (41-7, 15-3 Pac-12)
The Oregon softball team hosts Utah this weekend for the final regular season home series at Jane Sanders Stadium. Oregon enters the weekend tied with No.1 ranked UCLA on top of the Pac-12 standings, as both teams are 15-3 in league play. The Ducks meet Utah this weekend and travel to Cal next weekend. Oregon enters the weekend coming off a sweep of No. 3 Washington last weekend. The Ducks offense is batting .320 and has scored 292 runs versus the 66 they have given up on the season. Oregon ranks No. 2 in the NCAA in ERA (1.15), No. 13 in batting average (.320), No. 6 in slugging (.528) and No. 11 in fielding percentage (.976). The pitching staff has the best strikeout-to-walk ratio in the NCAA at 7.46-to-1. The Oregon pitchers have 418 strikeouts, and just 56 walks this season. Both RHP Miranda Elish and RHP Megan Kleist are finalists for the USA Softball player of the year. Oregon leads the all-time series with Utah, 27-10. The Ducks have won 20 of the last 21 meetings. The weekend series kicks off on Friday with all games streaming live on Pac-12 Network.
No. 3 Washington (41-8, 12-8 Pac-12)
The Huskies will wrap up the regular season this upcoming weekend with a road trip and will take on the Oregon State Beavers in Corvallis, Oregon. The Huskies will look to wrap up the regular season with single-digit losses. It would be just the fourth time in Husky history Washington has had single-digit losses in the regular season. Last weekend, Trysten Melhart became the second active Husky to record 150 career hits, joining Taylor Van Zee in that regard by hitting .667 over three games. Julia DePonte, who hit her 30th career home run against Oregon, needs one more hit this season to join that duo with 150 career hits. In the circle, Taran Alvelo and Gabbie Plain have continued to excel, combining for almost 350 strikeouts already. Alvelo (219 strikeouts) and Plain (126) became the first pair of Husky pitchers with 125 strikeouts each since 2013. Alvelo needs just one more win to reach 75 in her career and one more shutout to make it ten on the season. This year, Oregon State is 26-22 and 7-11 in Pac-12 play. Washington has won the last five consecutive series against Oregon State, stretching back to 2013. The weekend series is set to kick off on Friday.
No. 4 Oklahoma (45-3, 16-0 Big 12)
The Oklahoma Sooners clinched its seventh consecutive Big 12 regular season title on Wednesday night with an 8-0 run-rule victory over No. 21 Oklahoma State in five innings at Marita Hynes Field. It’s the 11th Big 12 regular season title in program history and 16th overall when including five Big 12 tournament championships. No other Big 12 team has more than eight combined titles. Wednesday night’s victory also clinched the No. 1 seed for OU in the Big 12 Championship starting on May 11. Senior Paige Parker recorded her first no-hitter of the season on Wednesday. After the first batter of the game drew a walk, Parker sat down the next 15 batters in order. Overall, Parker has pitched six complete-game no-hitters for her career. She also combined with Kelsey Stevens on May 15, 2015, against Central Arkansas. It is the 50th no-hitter in program history. Oklahoma (45-3, 16-0 Big 12) has now won 18 straight games against Oklahoma State (36-17, 12-4 Big 12). The win kept the Sooners perfect in Big 12 play and extended their program-best conference start to 16-0. They have also won 23 straight regular-season conference games. The Sooners and Cowgirls continue their series on Friday in Stillwater. The third and final regular season game will take place on Saturday in Norman.
No. 5 Florida (44-8, 17-4 SEC)
The Florida softball team travels to Columbia take on Missouri to close out the regular season this weekend. The Gators are currently in the driver’s seat for the Southeastern Conference regular-season championship with a two-game lead and only three games left to play. Last week Florida went 3-1 during senior week and picked up wins over in-state rival Florida State and its sixth SEC series victory of the season after the team defeated LSU in the opening and closing games. Over the last ten games, junior Amanda Lorenz is hitting .577 (15-for-26) with 11 runs scored, 12 RBI along with a pair of doubles, triples and home runs. She has also drawn eight walks during that stretch. Currently, the Gators lead the SEC in fielding percentage (0.983), on-base percentage (0.426), scoring (6.37), strikeout-to-walk ratio (5.29) and win/loss percentage (0.846). All of those marks also rank inside the Top 10 nationally. The Gator pitching staff holds a 1.30 ERA, 455 combined strikeouts, and a .149 batting average against in 329.2 innings pitched on the season. Missouri is 28-24 on the season and 6-14 in SEC play. The weekend series is set to kick off on Friday and go through Sunday.
