The University of Utah's Independent Student Voice

The Daily Utah Chronicle

The University of Utah's Independent Student Voice

The Daily Utah Chronicle

The University of Utah's Independent Student Voice

The Daily Utah Chronicle

Write for Us
Want your voice to be heard? Submit a letter to the editor, send us an op-ed pitch or check out our open positions for the chance to be published by the Daily Utah Chronicle.
@TheChrony
Print Issues
Write for Us
Want your voice to be heard? Submit a letter to the editor, send us an op-ed pitch or check out our open positions for the chance to be published by the Daily Utah Chronicle.
@TheChrony
Print Issues

Softball notes: Utes among top team in Pac-12 standings

softball.jpg

Over the weekend the Utes struck again, winning another series where the rankings and numbers pegged them as underdogs. But make no mistake, this Utah squad is anything but an underdog at this point. After grabbing the series from Arizona, Utah has now won four straight Pac-12 conference series.

Dating back to the series last month against Stanford, the Utes have recorded series wins against Cal, Oregon State and now Arizona. In those three series combined, Utah has lost just three times, as its conference record has improved to .500 heading towards the end of the regular season.

Utah now sits in fourth in the Pac-12 standings behind only Oregon, UCLA and the team it just beat — the Wildcats. However, Arizona still has a series with both Oregon and UCLA remaining on its schedule, so if the Utes keep up the same kind of success they’ve been having, they will likely jump the Wildcats for third.

Not only was the series win huge for the standing, but according to captain Hannah Flippen, the team really put it together in all facets against Arizona.

“It was sweet because we put all three aspects of our game together — pitching, hitting and defense,” Flippen said. “We haven’t had an all-around dominant performance like that in a game in a while, and so it was great to have all three games like that.”

The success has come from a process that started long before the Utes even stepped on the field. It all started in the locker room where the team set goals.

“All of us have one main goal, and we constantly do things to achieve it,” said first baseman Bridget Castro. “Our coaches are all super positive, and it just drives us.”

Utah tames the Wildcats’ bats

Arizona came into the weekend as one of the best teams in the country offensively, batting an incredibly-high .373 as a team at the plate. The Wildcats gave fits to most of the pitching staffs they previously faced, but that wasn’t the case against the Utes.

Utah pitchers held Arizona to just a .211 batting average during the three-game series, a feat not many teams have accomplished.

“I really thought it was a great weekend for our pitching staff,” said pitching coach Cody Thomson. “We used four pitchers, and we utilized our plans for each of them.”

Katie Donovan and Miranda Viramontes got the major workload for the Utes this weekend, while Kayce Nieto and Sammy Cordova also contributed a few innings of work. Donovan recorded her sixth save of the year in the final game as she continues to show her versatility and effectiveness.

“We knew she would be a great closer for us,” Thomson said.

Donovan isn’t alone, however, as she has quite the supporting cast. It has been a journey that has required a lot of hours practicing to perfect each of their games, but the hard work is paying off.

“They’ve all worked so hard,” Thomson continued. “It makes us proud.”

[email protected]

@brock_jensen02

Leave a Comment

Comments (0)

The Daily Utah Chronicle welcomes comments from our community. However, the Daily Utah Chronicle reserves the right to accept or deny user comments. A comment may be denied or removed if any of its content meets one or more of the following criteria: obscenity, profanity, racism, sexism, or hateful content; threats or encouragement of violent or illegal behavior; excessively long, off-topic or repetitive content; the use of threatening language or personal attacks against Chronicle members; posts violating copyright or trademark law; and advertisement or promotion of products, services, entities or individuals. Users who habitually post comments that must be removed may be blocked from commenting. In the case of duplicate or near-identical comments by the same user, only the first submission will be accepted. This includes comments posted across multiple articles. You can read more about our comment policy at https://dailyutahchronicle.com/comment-faqs/.
All The Daily Utah Chronicle Picks Reader Picks Sort: Newest

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *