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Softball Road Trip Continues with Four-Game Pac-12 Series at No. 10 Arizona

by Utah Athletics
Apr 22, 2021

The Utah softball team travels to Tucson this weekend for a four-game Pac-12 series against No. 10 Arizona, beginning Friday at 7 p.m. MT. The road trip continues for the Utes, who defeated Weber State in Ogden Tuesday night and dropped a close battle at BYU on Wednesday night.
 
Utah is seeking its first win against the Wildcats since 2017 and first win in Tucson since 2016. Arizona enters the series hosting Utah for the first time since 2018, and having won one of four games at in-state rival Arizona State last weekend.
 
UTAH (17-19; 2-10 Pac-12) at No. 10 ARIZONA (27-8; 6-5 Pac-12)
Fri., April 23 – 7 p.m. MT |  WATCH | LIVESTATS
Sat., April 24 – 3 p.m. MT |  WATCH | LIVESTATS
Sat., April 24 – 5:30 p.m. MT | WATCH | LIVESTATS
Sun., April 25 – 1 p.m. MT |  WATCH | LIVESTATS
 
THE LAST TIME
April 5-7, 2019 (Arizona won series 3-0), Salt Lake City
 
LEADING OFF

  • Utah returns to Pac-12 play after a pair of mid-week in-state road games, at Weber State and BYU. Three more non-conference games remain, all at home: A doubleheader April 28 vs. Idaho State and a single game May 4 against Weber State (rescheduled from April 16 because of weather). Utah is 15-2 in non-conference games.
  • Eleven of Utah's 34 games this season have come against Pac-12 opponents ranked in the Top 15 in the nation.
  • Utah is 6-4 in 1-run games and has three wins when trailing after 5 innings, including two when trailing after 6.

PAC-12/NATIONAL STAT RANKINGS

  • Utah ranks second in the Pac-12 in double plays per game (0.39).
  • The Utes also rank second in triples per game (.25; 9 total).
  • LF Haley Denning leads the Pac-12 (8th NCAA) in stolen bases (26-28), and ranks second in the Pac-12 (17th NCAA) in hits (51), third in triples (4; 18th NCAA) and fifth in runs per game (1.00).
  • INF Ellessa Bonstrom ranks fourth in the Pac-12 in home runs (10).

STATS LEADERS
Avg.: Haley Denning, .383 | Madi Jacobus, .316 | Julia Noskin, .295
Hits: Haley Denning, 51 | Alyssa Barrera, 33 | Julia Noskin, 28
HR: Ellessa Bonstrom, 12 | Katie Faulk, 4 | Halle Morris, 4
RBI: Ellessa Bonstrom, 31 | Alyssa Barrera, 30 | Halle Morris, 21
Runs: Haley Denning, 36 | Ellessa Bonstrom, 25 | Julia Noskin, 24
SB: Haley Denning, 26 | Julia Noskin, 10 | Ellessa Bonstrom, 5
Slug.: Ellessa Bonstrom, .739 | Madi Jacobus, .481 | Halle Morris, .464
Wins: Sydney Sandez, 8 | Mariah Lopez, 4 | Halle Morris, 4
ERA: Halle Morris, 3.89 | Sydney Sandez, 4.09 | Mariah Lopez, 4.32
IP: Sydney Sandez, 73.2 | Mariah Lopez, 68.0 | Halle Morris, 63.0
Ks: Mariah Lopez, 51 | Sydney Sandez, 36 | Halle Morris, 24
 
RECORDS WATCH
Centerfielder Alyssa Barrera began the season ranked fifth in career batting average at Utah (.367), and is now at .351 (229-652). She batted .381 as a freshman in 2017 (64-168), .322 in 2018 (49-152), .376 in 2019 (59-157) .421 in 2020 (24-57) and is at .280 this season (33-118).

  • Barrera, who played in her 200th career game on April 1 vs. ASU, now has 229 career hits. She needs to reach 245 to break into Utah's all-time top 5 and 264 to break Hannah Flippen's school record.

INDIVIDUAL NOTES

  • Ellessa Bonstrom has been on another home-run tear over the last five games. After missing three games because of injury she has come back in a big way to spark the Utah offense.
  • Bonstrom's grand slam Wednesday night at BYU, which gave Utah a 6-5 lead in the top of the seventh, was her team-leading 12th of the season, and marked her third game in a row with a home run, and her fourth in the last five games. The last time a Utah player had more HRs in a season was 2016 (Hannah Flippen, 13). The next highest total goes back to 2009 when Kara Foster hit 18.
  • Bonstrom's four RBI at BYU put her back in the team lead with 31 for the season, just ahead of Alyssa Barrera (30).
  • Over the five games since her return from injury Bonstrom is hitting .500 (8-16) with 4 HRs, 11 RBI and 8 runs scored.
  • Haley Denning has a career-best and team-high 26 stolen bases in 28 attempts this season, most since 2002 when Molly McLean stole 28 (in 31 att.). Denning stole 12 consecutive bases before being thrown out on her second attempt in the first game of a March 24 doubleheader vs. Utah Valley, and has now stolen nine in a row since.
  • Denning has been a model of consistency, leading the team with a .383 batting average (51-133) in the leadoff spot, and a team-best .343 average (23-67) in 19 games against Pac-12 opponents. She also leads the team with 17 multi-hit games, including six with three hits.
  • In addition to Denning's 26 stolen bases, Julia Noskin has 10 (in 12 att.), marking the first time Utah has had two players in double figures in stolen bases in the same season since 2012.
  • Alyssa Palacios has reach base in eight consecutive games.
  • True freshman Mariah Lopez has continued to blossom in her first collegiate season with four wins and is the team's leader in strikeouts (51).
  • Madi Jacobus earlier this season put together the longest hitting streak by a Utah player since 2017, at 14 games. It was the longest streak of her career and longest since Barrera and Hannah Flippen went 17 games in a row with a hit.
  • In a six-game stretch from Feb. 20-March 1, Utah had at least one home run in each game and 14 total in that span, including a season-high 4 at UNLV on Feb. 20 in the second game of the streak.
  • Bonstrom had 4 HRs in a 3-game span early in that streak, Feb. 20-21. The 4 HRs came in a span of 10 trips to the plate (8 AB, plus 2 walks). She was hit by pitch in two of her last three at-bats that day to finish the game 1-2.
  • Eight Utah player have hit home runs this year: Bonstrom (12), Faulk (4), Morris (4), Barrera (3), Jacobus (3), Alyssa Palacios (3), Jordyn Gasper (2), AJ Militello (2), Julia Scardina and Destiny Quiles.

FANTASTIC FRESHMEN
Utah's large freshman class has made an impact throughout the 2021 season. Six of the eight have seen game action thus far: Aliya Belarde, Alicia Estrada, Sophie Jacquez, Mariah Lopez, Shelbi Ortiz and Savanah Whatley.

  • Lopez, who leads the team with 51 strikeouts (in 68.0 inn.), earned her first career win at UNLV on Feb. 21, allowing just four hits and a walk in a complete-game performance. She struck out 11 batters—including the last three she faced, to end the game—the most by a Utah pitcher since 2012 when Generra Nielson struck out 12 against Utah Valley (5/8/12).
  • Belarde has started 11 games at shortstop, two at third base and one at second base.
  • Jacquez has started once in right field and once as DH.

CAPTAINS
This year's captains representing the Utes are fifth-year Alyssa Barrera and fellow seniors Alyssa Palacios and Julia Noskin.
 
A GRADUATE AND A "SUPER SENIOR"
Fifth-year Alyssa Barrera earned her bachelor's degree from Utah in April 2020 and elected to come back for her "Super Senior" season in 2021 when the NCAA allowed that choice after the 2020 season was cut short due to the pandemic. Barrera's degree is in Communications, with a minor in Business.
 
HONOR ROLL
Utah's roster features two players who have earned NFCA All-Region honors during their career.

  • CF Alyssa Barrera earned all-region honors for the first time in 2017, and for a second time in 2019 when she paced Utah with a .376 batting average (13th Pac-12), 59 hits, 37 RBI and a .432 on-base percentage. She also finished second on the team with 30 runs scored, nine doubles and a .599 slugging percentage. Barrera's seven triples led the Pac-12 and ranked fifth nationally while tying the school record.
  • SS Julia Noskin picked up her first NFCA honor in 2019 after leading Utah with 36 runs scored and nine stolen bases in 2019. She was second on the team with 54 hits and ranked third in batting (.318). Noskin also paced the Pac-12 with 130 fielding assists and her prowess in the field helped Utah turn a league-best 28 double plays.

HEAD COACH AMY HOGUE | 14TH YEAR (Utah '94)
Amy Hogue is in her 22nd season affiliated with the Utah Softball program and 14th as head coach. Hogue, who was inducted into the Utah Athletics Hall of Fame in 2020, has made an incredible impact on the program as a student-athlete (1991-94), assistant coach (1996-99) and head coach (2008-present).

  • In her 14th season as the Utes' head coach, Hogue has a 366-336-1 record and sports a 563-418-1 overall mark in her 20th year as a collegiate head coach.
  • The 2015 Pac-12 Coach of the Year led the Utes to three consecutive NCAA Tournament berths from 2015-2017, including back-to-back Super Regionals for the first time in program history (2016, 2017).
  • In 2020 she guided the Utes to a blazing 14-4 start and a No. 21 national ranking before the season was cut short just prior to the start of Pac-12 play because of COVID-19 concerns.
  • A standout performer for the Utes from 1991-1994, Hogue earned second team All-America honors and WAC Player of the Year as a senior.
  • Before becoming Utah's head coach, Hogue built and mentored Salt Lake Community College's program from 1999-2004.

PAC-12 SCHEDULE IN 2021
In Pac-12 Conference play this year, teams will play a four-game series each weekend, with a doubleheader on the second day of each series. Only three of the four games will count toward the Conference standings, meaning each team will play as many as 32 games against league opponents in the conference portion of the schedule (March 19-May 15), but only 24 will count toward determining the Pac-12 champion.

  • The two single games and the first game of the doubleheader, regardless of day, will count as Conference games.
  • If all four games are played, the second game on Day 2 of each series will be counted as a non-conference game.
  • If only three contests are completed in total, all will count as Conference games.
  • Utah's schedule included four other non-conference games against Pac- 12 foes, one against ASU in the Kajikawa Classic (Feb. 13) and three others (vs. Oregon, UCLA and ASU) in Tempe, Ariz., Feb. 28-March 1.

RANKINGS RUMBLINGS
While Utah received votes in the preseason rankings, falling just outside the Top 25, five Pac-12 opponents the Utes face in 2021 were ranked in the preseason poll. Utah is scheduled to play a combined 23 games against preseason No. 1 UCLA (5), No. 2 Washington (4), No. 3 Arizona (4), No. 10 Oregon (5) and No. 16 ASU (5). The updated polls can be found here.
 
UTES CONTINUE TO EXCEL IN THE CLASSROOM
Utah placed eight student-athletes on the Pac-12 Spring Academic Honor Roll in 2020. Two-time NFCA All-Region honoree and All-Pac-12 performer Alyssa Barrera received her third academic award. Julia Noskin, another Ute recognized as an All-Pac-12 player, notched her second academic honor, as did BreOnna Castaneda and Katie Faulk, while Ellessa Bonstrom, Haley Denning, Claire Feldman and Jordyn Gasper earned their first Pac-12 academic honors. Utah has had 33 student-athletes earn 53 Pac-12 All-Academic honors since joining the conference in 2012.
 
UNLV DESERT CLASSIC REVIEW
For the second tournament in a row the Utes won four of five games in a weekend, defeating host UNLV twice (14-12, 6-3) and Weber State (4-3) and California Baptist (14-7) once each at the Desert Classic in Las Vegas. The lone loss came to CBU (5-3). After splitting Day 1 the Utes responded with back-to-back 14-run games on Saturday, and closed out the weekend with freshman Mariah Lopez's 11-strikeout complete game win on Sunday. Julia Noskin batted .500 for the weekend, Madi Jacobus batted .476 and Ellessa Bonstrom belted four home runs in a stretch of 8 at-bats over three games, all wins.
 
KAJIKAWA CLASSIC AND GCU REVIEW
Utah won four of its five games Feb. 12-14 at the Kajikawa Classic at Arizona State, after winning its season opener the night before at Grand Canyon, 6-5. The Utes claimed three wins over Seattle and a 1-0 shutout of BYU, with the only loss coming against tournament host No. 15/16 ASU.

  • In the season opener at GCU, the Utes rallied for five runs in the top of the 8th and needed every one of them after GCU battled back with 4 runs of its own, for the 6-5 win.
  • Utah scored 10 runs twice in wins over Seattle, and won its first two tournament games by one run (2-1 over Seattle and 1-0 over BYU) to claim one-run victories in each of the season's first three games.
  • The Utes showed considerable fight after falling behind 9-0 to ASU, rallying for four runs with timely hitting, including a two-run double by Alyssa Barrera into the right-field corner for her 200th career hit.
  • Haley Denning had a hit in all six games for the week (10-23; .435) and Ellessa Bonstrom homered in three of the five tournament games.

CELEBRATING A HOMECOMING
The Utah softball program has produced countless leaders who have gone on to significant careers in a variety of professions, including head coach Amy (Timmel) Hogue (1991-94). Another who has risen in the intercollegiate athletics world is two-time All-American Charmelle Green, who starred at Utah from 1988-91, and was a teammate of Coach Hogue. It was announced Jan. 26 that Green will be returning to her to Utah as deputy A.D. and chief operating officer and she officially began her new role March 1. Green, who was inducted into the Utah Athletics Hall of Fame in 2001, and joined by Hogue in 2020, had spent the previous 10 years at Penn State.
 
ON DECK
Utah returns to Salt Lake City for six games next week, beginning with a Wednesday, April 28 doubleheader against Idaho State, and concluding with a four-game Pac-12 series against No. 2 UCLA, Friday-Sunday at Dumke Family Stadium.
 

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