No sooner had I written about the University of Arizona's dominating start to Pac-12 play (see previous post ) than the Wildcats dropped a Saturday decision at Cal , 1-0 in nine innings. U of A  won the other two games of the series to improve its conference record to 17-1. As I noted in the previous post, series with Washington and UCLA await Arizona. *** The hard-luck team of the weekend has to be Texas Tech. The Red Raiders were swept three straight against Oklahoma State in Stillwater. All three games were decided by one run: 3-2, 8-7, and 6-5 on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, respectively. On Saturday, Tech led 7-0. OSU tied the game in the fifth inning on a two-out, two-run triple. The play could have been a lead-preserving out had the two Raider outfielders not collided with each other and jarred the ball loose from one of the mitts. In the sixth, the Cowgirls scored the go-ahead run on a one-out, bases-loaded grounder through the pitcher's legs . If the ball or th

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

Oklahoma, which ascended to the No. 1 spot in the national polls after UCLA dropped one of three to Oregon a week ago, has taken the first two games of its Big 12 series with Texas. Scores of the Sooners' two wins over the Longhorns were 3-1 on Thursday and 4-3 (8 innings) on Friday . OU's Game 2 win over Texas had a particularly wild finish, regarding both how the Sooners scored their two runs in the top of the eighth to break a 2-2 tie, and the Longhorns scored one run but were denied a tying second run in the bottom half. A play-by-play sheet is available here . In short, in the top of the eighth, Oklahoma went up 3-2 as Sydney Romero tagged up from third on a liner to right that was caught, barely getting her hand on the plate. Then, while the Longhorns were arguing the call, Fale Aviu, who began the play on second base, came home, to make it 4-2. In the bottom half, UT put together a pair of two-out hits -- by Kaitlyn Slack to center and M. K. Tedder to left -- each

No. 1 UCLA lost to Oregon  Friday by a 4-3 score in the opener of a three-game series. It was only the Bruins' second loss of the season. UCLA came back to take the final two games of the series, 8-3 on Saturday and 8-1 on Sunday. In the finale, the Bruins put up seven runs in the bottom of the sixth inning , on a three-run homer and a grand slam . How often is a three-run homer not a team's most productive hit of an inning?

Oregon-transfer Miranda Elish, shown getting ready to pitch to Heaven Burton, threw a complete-game shutout, as Texas downed Texas Tech, 2-0 , in the opening game of a three-game series in Lubbock. Elish allowed five hits and no walks, and struck out six. The Red Raiders' Missy Zoch blanked the Longhorns in six of the seven innings she pitched. She gave up the only two runs of the game in the top of the sixth inning on a walk, single, two fielder's-choice plays, another walk, and a hit-by-pitch. Zoch allowed three hits and two walks, and struck out seven. GAME 2: Texas Tech grabs 3-2 walk-off win on Saturday to even the series. GAME 3: Elish comes back on Sunday with two-hitter to give Longhorns a 2-0 win and the series. (UT pitched Shealyn O'Leary and Brooke Bolinger in Saturday's game.)