Skip to main content

Arizona Pounding Pac-12 Foes

The University of Arizona has moved up in the national rankings to anywhere from No. 3 to No. 5, depending on the specific poll. The reason is very clear: The Wildcats' 15-0 record in Pac-12 play, nearly all by blowout margins. Granted, U of A has not yet faced its two toughest conference opponents, UCLA and Washington. Still, what Arizona has done so far is very impressive.

The following chart (which you can click to enlarge) shows the score and opponent in each of the Wildcats' Pac-12 games in each little "softball," plotted along the horizontal axis according to Arizona's margin of victory.


In these 15 conference games, U of A has scored an average of 9.53 runs, while allowing 0.93 runs, on average.

For the season overall -- in which Arizona is 38-7 -- several players have compiled gaudy statistics. Offensively, I consider the two most important statistics to be slugging percentage and on-base average. Combined, they yield OPS (on-base plus slugging). As shown in the following table, five Wildcat hitters are putting up stratospheric numbers in these areas.

Player Slugging Perc. On-Base Avg. OPS
Reyna Carranco (Jr., 2B) .655 .481 1.136
Jessie Harper (Jr., SS) .888 .432 1.320
Alyssa Palomino (Jr., CF) .796 .465 1.261
Malia Martinez (Jr., 3B) .674 .430 1.104
Dejah Mulipola (Jr., C) .916 .500 1.416

In the circle, senior Taylor McQuillin (1.23) and junior Alyssa Denham (1.86) have led the way with their low Earned Run Averages (ERA).

Popular posts from this blog

Washington used a first-inning grand-slam homer from pitcher Danielle Lawrie and some late insurance runs to defeat Georgia by a score of 9-3 in tonight's late game. The win gives U-Dub a spot in the best-of-three championship series against Florida starting Monday (Georgia had defeated Washington earlier today, 9-8 in nine innings, to force tonight's rematch). The Huskies thus claimed "top dog" status over Georgia on their side of the bracket. Florida got a two-out grand-slam homer from Ali Gardiner in the bottom of the seventh to edge Alabama 6-5. The Crimson Tide made a strong recovery in the tournament after looking "not ready for prime time" in an opening-round loss to Michigan. But, as a result of tonight's heartbreaking loss to the Gators, Bama is now eliminated. Lowrie's and Gardiner's grand-slams are among four that have been hit so far in this World Series.
Read more

Pitching Star NiJaree Canady Reportedly in the Transfer Portal

Stanford pitching ace NiJaree Canady has reportedly entered the transfer portal ( link ), having completed two seasons in the circle for the Cardinal. Stanford has made the WCWS in both of Canady's seasons on the team. Another school hit hard by the transfer portal is the University of Washington, with an exodus of eight Huskies . This list of the top ten players in the portal includes four from UW. Today is the final day of the 30-day window for players to enter the portal.
Read more

Florida Shines at Kajikawa Classic

The University of Florida, ranked No. 14 and 15 in the two major national preseason polls, pulled two major upsets en route to an undefeated 5-0 performance at the season-opening Kajikawa Classic at Arizona State. Among the Gator victims were three Pac 12 schools: No. 3 Cal (by a score of 7-4), No. 5/6 Oregon (1-0), and No. 13/14 Arizona (14-3). Full results of the tournament are available here .
Read more