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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).

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