Entering Pac 12 Softball conference play, Softball America ranked 5 Pac -12 teams in the Top 10. Whoever emerges on top of the Pac-12 should be the favorite at the College World Series. #2 UCLA (15-1) and #3 Oregon (16-1) are behind Oklahoma after they split two games in February.

The Bruins begin conference play against #6 ASU (17-2). The Sun Devils losses were to #1 Oklahoma (22-0) and Baylor (15-4). In 2019, the Bruins swept ASU with 3 run rule victories in 16 innings outscoring the Sun Devils 35-5.

All 9 ASU starters are batting over .300 led by the Hackbarth twins Maddi (.491) and Kindra (.450). The Sun Devil’s rely on a trio of pitchers Lindsay Lopez, (6-1, 1.65 ERA), Allison Royalty (5-1, 2.67 ERA), and Cielo Meza (6-0, 3.58 ERA) while they wait for Marissa Schuld (UA 2019/2020 2-0, 17.2 innings, 0.40 ERA, .318 BA) to clear enrollment.

UCLA appears to be in mid-season form last week (.409 BA, 0.00 ERA). All 9 projected starters are batting over .300 and 5 are batting over .400 for the season. 8/15 games to date are run rule victories. Rachel Garcia (.509 BA, .889 SLG, 3 HR, 2-0, 0.00 ERA) appears fully recovered from injury suffered in early this season. Megan Faraimo (8-1, 0.76 ERA) has not allowed an earned run in her last four games. Briana Perez is having the best season of her career (.479 BA (2), 23 H (1), 21 R (1) 6 HR (1), 7-7 SB (1), .526 OB% (2), 1.021 SLG% (1)) leading in almost every offensive categories.

With the new conference play format only 3 (Friday, Saturday game 1, Sunday) games will count towards conference records. Saturday game 2 will count if one of the other games is cancelled otherwise it will count as a non-conference game. It will be interesting to see how Coach Kelly Inouye-Perez manages the starting pitching.