THE GAMES (Times MST)
46 | Friday, April 26 |  6,  3 | Recap | Box Score (PDF)
47 | Saturday, April 27 |  1,  0 (9 inn.) | Recap | Box Score (PDF)
48 | Sunday, April 28 (12 p.m.) |  at  | Live Stream | Live Stats | Twitter Updates
 

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THIS WEEK: Fifth-ranked Arizona (38-7, 15-0 Pac-12) will head on the road this week to wrap up the month of April, which has the potential to be the first undefeated month of April in Arizona history if the Wildcats can come up with their sixth straight sweep to open conference play. Arizona will head to California (25-23, 3-14 Pac-12) for a three-game series in Berkeley. The Wildcats have won seven straight games (and five straight series) vs. the Golden Bears, including a sweep in Tucson last season and a sweep in Berkeley in 2017. The Wildcats and the Bears meet Friday (3 p.m.), Saturday (1 p.m.) and Sunday (12 p.m.) at Levine-Fricke Field.

LEADING OFF

• Fifth-ranked Arizona rides a 20-game winning streak into its penultimate Pac-12 road trip, its longest winning streak since winning 26 in-a-row in 2017. Included in the 20-game winning streak are five Pac-12 sweeps, giving the Cats their second best start in UA's conference history, joining 1994 (23-0).
• During Arizona's 20-game winning streak Arizona is outscoring its opponents 181-17. The Cats have hit 46 of their NCAA-most 88 home runs during the 20-game stretch.
• In these 20 victories, Arizona's pitchers have allowed just 12 earned runs (0.70 ERA) and have thrown 10 shutouts. This has lowered Arizona's season ERA to 1.45, third best in the NCAA.
• Over that 20-game period, UA's opponents have a total of 14 RBI. During the same stretch, six different individual Wildcats have 14-or-more RBI, led by Malia Martinez, who has 36 RBI over her 61 at-bats in the span.
• Arizona placed an NCAA-most three players on the midseason USA Softball Player of the Year Finalists. Junior shortstop Jessie Harper, senior pitcher Taylor McQuillin and junior catcher Dejah Mulipola are three of the 26 finalists for the award.
• In an unprecedented decision, Arizona's entire junior class (six players) was named Arizona Athletics' Female Junior Student-Athlete of the Year. UA's five junior position players (Reyna Carranco, Jessie Harper, Malia Martinez, Dejah Mulipola, Alyssa Palomino-Cardoza) are hitting a combined .381 with 72 total home runs and 244 RBI this season. If the five players were their own team, they would lead the NCAA in batting average and have the fifth most home runs in the country; their 244 combined RBI is more than 250 Division I teams have scored this season.
• An Arizona junior leads the Pac-12 (or is tied for the lead) in every major statistical category: batting average (Carranco - .444), slugging percentage (Mulipola - .916), on-base percentage (Mulipola - .500), runs scored (Harper - 53), RBI (Harper - 55), doubles (Palomino-Cardoza - 15), home runs (Harper - 21), total bases (Harper - 127) and walks (Mulipola - 32).
• The Wildcats lead the country in home runs (88), already surpassing their 2018 total of 75 that was sixth most in the country. The 88 home runs exceed the number of total runs that UA's pitchers have allowed all season (77).
• Junior shortstop Jessie Harper is third in the NCAA with a career-most 21 home runs, two shy of the nation's leader. She is 10th in UA history with 58 for her career, two away from becoming the fourth Wildcat in school history to hit her 60th career home run during her junior year (the other three are all in the top 6 in NCAA history in career home runs).
• Junior catcher Dejah Mulipola has four home runs in her last four games (and nine during Pac-12 play), giving her a career-most 20 this season, making UA one of two teams (Mississippi State) with two players with 20-plus home runs.
• Mulipola currently leads the Pac-12 in both slugging percentage (.916) and on-base percentage (.500). She is trying to become the first player to lead the league in both statistical categories since the 2012 Pac-12 Player of the Year Valerie Arioto of California.
• Arizona's offense is top 10 in the NCAA in home runs per game (1st - 1.96), slugging percentage (2nd - .636), scoring (4th - 7.47), batting average (5th - .344) and on-base percentage (6th - .426). 
• Arizona's pitching staff is third in the country in ERA (1.45) and sixth in strikeout-to-walk ratio (4.37).
• The UA pitching staff is led by Taylor McQuillin, who is 17-5 (including a Pac-12-most nine shutouts) this season with a 1.23 ERA. Last week, McQuillin was the sixth overall selection in the 2019 NPF Draft by the Cleveland Comets.
• In 15 conference games, the Wildcats have outscored their Pac-12 opponents 143-14 and have a Pac-12-best 0.81 ERA in league games. Arizona's 143 runs scored already eclipse its 2018 24-game total of 93 runs scored and nears UA's 2017 (Pac-12-Championship-winning) total of 146 runs.
• Dating back to last season, Arizona has won eight consecutive Pac-12 series after its five sweeps to open conference play this season.
• Arizona has won 34 of its last 37 games, with its only three losses in that span coming to the current No. 1 (Oklahoma) and No. 6 (Florida State) ranked teams in the country by a combined four runs.
• UA has played 13 games against ranked opponents and has a 8-5 record in those games. All five losses are to top-seven opponents. Despite the 1-5 record, in six games vs. (current rankings) No. 1 Oklahoma, No. 3 Alabama, No. 6 Florida State and No. 7 Florida, UA has been outscored by just two runs (21-23) and has 11 more hits (40-29).
• Arizona is the only team in the country with four players with double-digit home runs this season: Jessie Harper (21), Dejah Mulipola (20), Alyssa Palomino-Cardoza (14) and Malia Martinez (12). Only six other schools have three players with 10+ home runs. UA's junior class (5 hitters) has combined for 72 home runs. That total would rank fifth in the country if they were their own team.
• Arizona's offense has been heating up with the weather. Since the calendar turned to March (last 30 games), Arizona has averaged 8.53 runs/game and is hitting 2.1 home runs per game after scoring 5.33 runs and hitting 1.67 homers per game in February (15 games).
• Arizona head coach Mike Candrea enters the weekend three wins shy of Michigan's Carol Hutchins for the most career wins in NCAA softball history. Candrea, who is in his 32nd year of coaching at Arizona, has won 1,601 wins while Hutchins has 1,604 over 36 seasons of coaching. Earlier this year, Candrea moved into fifth all-time in NCAA Division I victories among all sports.
   

NOTES ON THE GOLDEN BEARS (25-23, 3-14 Pac-12)

• California has won two of its last three games entering this weekend after losing four of its previous five. The Golden Bears dropped its series at Oregon last weekend before splitting a Tuesday doubleheader with Nevada.
• The Bears are led by a solid pitching duo of Kamalani Dung (11-9, 2.37 ERA, 131 K, 130.0 IP) and Zoe Conley (8-14, 3.53 ERA, 105 K, 133.0 IP).
• Offensively, Cal is led by Lindsay Rood, who is hitting .402 with 15 doubles, four triples and four homers to go along with a perfect 29-for-29 stolen base mark.  

ARIZONA vs. CALIFORNIA

• The Wildcats hold an 84-31 all-time series advantage over California.
• Arizona has won the last five series vs. Cal and have won seven straight games overall in the series.
• UA swept 22nd-ranked California in a three-game series at Hillenbrand last season in a trio of closely-contested games, including a nine-inning 3-2 Wildcat win in game 2.
• Arizona swept Cal its last trip to Berkeley in 2017, nearly pulling off the shutout sweep; the Cats outscored the home team 19-1 over three games.
• The Cats have won the last three series in Berkeley, with its last loss coming to the top-ranked Golden Bearns in 2012.

LAST WEEK

• Arizona swept Stanford in a three-game series, outscoring the Cardinal 29-3 over the three-game series.
• The Cardinal entered the series without a run-rule loss all season; Arizona run-ruled Stanford in games 2 and 3 to complete the sweep.
• Arizona hit .406 on the weekend, led by Hillary Edior, who hit .667 with a double and a home run.
• Dejah Mulipola hit three home runs over the first two games of the series and finished the weekend with a .571 batting average, .667 OBP and a 1.857 slugging percentage.
• Taylor McQuillin went 2-0 with a 0.64 ERA.