No. 8 Huskies Head To Berkeley For Top 25 Battle
SEATTLE – No. 8 Washington softball heads to the Bay for a Top 25 matchup against No. 20 California this weekend. The Huskies enter the series with an overall record of 28-7 and 10-5 in Pac-12 action.
WEEKEND SCHEDULE
Friday, April 19
at #20 California
Berkeley, Calif. | Levine-Fricke Field
3 p.m. PT | Pac-12 Network | Live Stats
Saturday, April 20
at #20 California
Berkeley, Calif. | Levine-Fricke Field
1 p.m. PT | Cal Live Stream 5 | Live Stats
Sunday, April 21
at #20 California
Berkeley, Calif. | Levine-Fricke Field
12 p.m. PT | Pac-12 Network | Live Stats
PAC-12 HONORS
The Huskies have earned five Pac-12 weekly awards this season after Rylee Holtorf (player) and Sidne Peters (freshman) were honored earlier this month. Holtorf hit a pair of home runs – including the walk-off in game three – to help the Huskies sweep Oregon State. Peters recorded a pair of wins in 2.2 innings with five strikeouts and no hits allowed. Jillian Celis was named Player of the Week after the Jane Sanders Classic. Jadyn Glab earned freshman of the week during opening weekend and Ruby Meylan was named pitcher of the week during the second weekend.
DAWGS WORLDWIDE
Ruby Meylan, Lindsay Lopez, Jillian Celis, Sis Bates and Heather Tarr all represented national teams this summer along with former Huskies Ali Aguilar, Taran Alvelo and Baylee Klingler. Future Husky Morgan Reimer played with Team Canada in the Pan American Games. Meylan played with Team USA at the Japan All-Star Series in August. Bates, Tarr, Aguilar and Klingler participated with the US National Team at the WBSC World Cup Group A and Pan American Games. Lopez and Celis represented Mexico at the Canada Cup and Pan American Games while Alvelo played with Team Puerto Rico at the World Cup qualifier and Pan American Games.
Last month, Tarr was once again named head coach of the US Women's National Team for this summer at the WBSC Women's Softball World Cup Finals held in Castions di Strada, Italy. She will be joined with Bates who was named to the WBSC World Cup roster last week as part of the US Women's National Team. Klingler will compete with the US Women's Elite Team at the Japan All-Star Series.
TOUGH SCHEDULE
The Huskies' 2024 schedule includes 10 teams ranked in the Top 25 preseason poll by either the NFCA or USA Softball. The teams include Oklahoma, Florida State, Stanford, Oklahoma State, UCLA, Utah, LSU, Oregon, Nebraska, Kentucky while 2024 opponents Arizona, Arizona State, Minnesota and Cal are receiving votes. So far, UW has a record of 7-6 against Top 25 teams (at the time the game was played). Washington has had a pair of ranked games canceled due to weather in LSU (at Clearwater) and Florida State (at Jane Sanders Classic).
GETTING IT DONE IN THE CIRCLE
Last season, Ruby Meylan (18) and Lindsay Lopez (14) led the pitching staff in wins. It marked the first time since 2019 (Gabbie Plain - 24 and Taran Alvelo - 26) that the Huskies had a pair of pitchers with double digit wins. The duo is on track to do it again, with Lopez sitting at nine and Meylan at eight wins. Brooke Nelson has also recorded five victories and Sidne Peters with six. The last time the Huskies had three pitchers with 10 or more wins was in 2012 with Kaitlin Inglesby (19), Kasey Stanchek (10) and Bryana Walker (10). All four Husky pitchers have recorded at least one complete game.
NELSON GOES YARD (AGAIN)
Brooke Nelson had a pair of multi-home run games last week at Oregon (4/6/24) and at Boise State (4/10/24). The game at Oregon was Nelson's first multi-home run game. The last time a Husky had two multi-home run games in a span of four days was Morganne Flores in 2019 when she had two home runs at Oregon (3/24/19) and vs. Cal Poly (3/27/19).
TAKING THE SERIES
The Huskies won their first series against UCLA since 2016. It also marked the first series win against the Bruins in Seattle since 2010. Washington took two-of-three against the UCLA this past weekend. The last time the Huskies won three consecutive series to open conference action was in 2010.
CONSISTENT CELIS
Fifth-year senior Jillian Celis has started in every single game of her career between her time at San Diego State and Washington. She has started in 218 games - 183 at SDSU and 35 at UW. Celis is 48th among active DI softball student-athletes with 219 hits in her career. She is tied for 12th with 48 doubles.
HOME SWEET HOME
Since 2018, the Huskies have posted a 100-21 record at Husky Softball Stadium, including a 17-3 record in 2023. Washington is 10-2 at home this season.
NO-NO
Fifth-year senior Brooke Nelson recorded her first career no-hitter and 50th in program history against Loyola Chicago at the South Florida Showdown. Nelson struck out five in the outing and allowed only one walk in the second inning to the leadoff batter. It was the first Husky no-hitter since Kelley Lynch and Ruby Meylan combined for one at Oregon State last season. Lynch also threw a no-hitter earlier in the year against Bethune-Cookman at Mary Nutter.
ALL-AROUND FIEDLER
Kinsey Fiedler has played seven positions during her time as a Husky. As a freshman she saw time at second base and shortstop. As a sophomore added first base and catcher. This season she has seen action at third base, left field and center field.
CAREER WIN NO. 800
On Feb. 24, head coach Heather Tarr recorded career win No. 800 following an 8-0 run-rule victory over Yale at the South Florida Showdown. Tarr is Washington's all-time leader in wins among all sports. Among active Division I softball head coaches, Tarr is 28th in career wins. Only 10 other head coaches with more win have coached at one school. Her .727 winning percentage ranks ninth among DI active coaches that have coached five or more seasons.
ALL-TIME VS. CALIFORNIA
Washington leads the all-time series against California 56-45. In Berkeley, the Golden Bears lead 27-25. Last season, the Huskies swept the series in Seattle.
SCOUTING THE GOLDEN BEARS
Cal enters the weekend matchup with an overall record of 30-12 and 4-9 in Pac-12 action. Tatum Anzaldo leads the team with a .386 average and 15 stolen bases. Elon Butler is the team leader with 12 home runs while Acacia Anders leads with 33 RBI. The Golden Bears hold a team ERA of 2.98 with Haylei Archer leading the way with a 2.49 ERA in 22 appearances and 81.2 innings. Randi Roelling throws a majority of the innings (100.0) with six complete games and 79 strikeouts. She holds an 11-5 record.
UP NEXT
The Huskies return home for the final time during the regular season for a Top 10 matchup with Stanford. The three-game series begins on Friday, April 26 and concludes on Sunday, April 28 with our senior day celebration. The Huskies will honor their four seniors - Brooke Nelson, Lindsay Lopez, Avery Hobson and Jillian Celis - in a postgame ceremony. To view the entire weekend schedule and how to tune in, click here.
For more information on the UW softball team, follow @UWSoftball on X and Instagram.