This weekend's signature games would have to be UCLA and Washington visiting the Arizona schools. U-of-A leads the Pac 10 standings at 8-2, but has benefited from getting to play the vast majority of its conference games at home, thus far. At the conclusion of this weekend's action, the Wildcats will have played 10 of their first 13 Pac 10 games in the friendly confines of Hillenbrand Stadium. Arizona will then play its final eight conference games on the road.
This Friday (and all remaining Fridays of the regular season), I will preview the upcoming weekend's games. Before doing so, I wanted to do an entry, primarily for sports fans who have not watched much softball, on differences they could expect to see between softball and baseball. The Sandy Plains Softball Association of Marietta, Georgia has produced a document entitled Fastpitch 101 , which details the similarities and differences in the rules of the two sports. Here are some of my own observations from over the years: 1. Because the bases are considerably closer together in softball (60 feet) than in baseball (90 feet), softball infielders consistently must pick up ground balls and make their throws to first base quickly, in order to get the runner. In other words, many (if not most) softball grounders result in "bang-bang" plays at first base, necessitating a lot of close calls by first-base umpires, who must detect whether the thrown ball (to the first-baseperso...