This week in Pac-12 softball
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Pac-12 softball teams continue an impressive February going 25-4 during the second week of play. After several rain outs, ARIZONA, OREGON, and UTAH all remain undefeated as both UCLA and the Ducks recorded a win against No. 22/23 Kentucky....Oregon’s Lauren Lindvall was named the Pac-12 Player of the Week after going a perfect 5-for-5 over three games for the Ducks. UCLA’s Rachel Garcia was named Pac-12 Pitcher of the Week and Arizona’s Dejah Mulipola was named Pac-12 Freshman of the Week....Eight Conference teams head south to Palm Springs, Calif. to face multiple top-ranked teams including No. 1/1 Florida State, No. 7/8 LSU, No. 11/12 Georgia, No. 14/14 Michigan, No. 15/13 Tennessee, No. 18/18 Texas A&M, and No. 20/22 Missouri. Oregon heads across the ocean to Honolulu, Hawai’i to compete in the Rainbow Wahine Classic....Seven teams are ranked including four in the top-10 this week in the USA Softball/ESPN.com poll. UCLA is at the top at No. 4, Oregon and Washington follow at Nos. 6 and 7 respectively and Arizona remains in the top 10 at No. 9. Utah is at No. 17, Arizona State at No. 19 and California at No. 21.
• National Recognition: Washington’s Taran Alvelo captured ESPNW’s national player of the week after her performances in the Huskies upset of No. 1 Oklahoma and No. 2 Auburn last weekend. The freshman went 18-7 with a 3.16 ERA on the weekend.
• Perfect: Utah’s Miranda Viramontes threw a perfect game in the Utes’ 8-0 vicotry over UC Bakersfield, striking out a season-high seven batters over six innings, to highlight a perfect 3-0 weekend.
• Score Big: League teams outscored their opponents by more than double in the opening weekend, recording 308 runs while holding opponents to just 102. Seven of the nine league teams outscored their opponents by double digits this week: Arizona: 39-6; Arizona State: 37-7; California: 31-19; Oregon: 38-10; Oregon State: 12-3; UCLA: 48-2 ; Utah: 47-5
• New Faces: According to FloSoftball, seven Pac-12 recruiting classes are ranked in the top 25 including Oregon bringing in the No. 1 recruiting class in the nation this year. Arizona has the third-ranked class, followed by Washington, UCLA and Arizona State with the No. 6, 8 and 12 classes. Utah brings in the 13th-ranked recruiting class and Stanford rounds out at No. 14.
• 2017 Watch List: Nine Pac-12 athletes were named to the ‘watch list’ for the 2017 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year award. Arizona leads with three athletes including Katiyana Mauga, Danielle O’Toole, and Mandie Perez. Also included on the list are Oregon’s Kenna Lilley and Nikki Udria, Washington’s Ari Aguilar, Utah’s Hannah Flippen, California’s Jazmyn Jackson, and UCLA’s Delaney Spaulding. Previous USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year award winners include UCLA catcher Stacey Nuveman (2002), Washington pitcher Danielle Lawrie (2009 and 2010), and Stanford shortstop Ashley Hansen (2011).