Utah Softball (21-9, 3-0 Pac-12) heads south to Tucson this week to take on No. 18 Arizona (20-9, 2-1 Pac-12) in its first Pac-12 road series of the season.
“It’s tough to go to Tucson. It’s tough because they protect their home field so well,” said Utah head coach Amy Hogue. “They have good pitching this year, we won the series against them last year at home, but they have a different pitching staff that we’re going to have to figure out right away if we want a chance to beat them at their place.”
Utah started 3-0 in Pac-12 play for the first time in program history, sweeping then-No. 23/24 Oregon State in the Utes’ first-ever Pac-12 series that opened at home instead of the road. Utah will be trying to take that confidence and momentum into Hillenbrand Stadium to upset another ranked team.
“I like the fact that we’re going in with the confidence with our bats, so we need to get out there and hit right away,” Hogue said.
Ally Dickman, who won Pac-12 Freshman of the Week on Monday, said the sweep of the Beavers has given the Utes much-needed confidence.
“[The sweep] means a lot to our team, especially since have been really focusing on not only beating the teams we’re supposed to beat, but beating the better teams,” Dickman said. “To see our team come out and really push as a team effort, that was really big for us.”
Utah comes into the series on a five-game winning steak. The Utes have outscored their opponents 53-21 in that stretch since losing to BYU and have outhit their opponents 52-37. Over the weekend, the team set season-highs, including number of runs scored in a game, runs batted in a game and hits in a game.
Arizona comes into the series having gone 2-1 on its opening Pac-12 series at Arizona State. The player to watch for on the Wildcats is redshirt junior pitcher Danielle O’Toole, who has been named the Pac-12 Pitcher of the Week two of the six weeks the award has been given out so far this season. O’Toole is 11-5 this year, with a 1.69 ERA.
Arizona’s secondary pitcher this season is Taylor McQuillin, who is 8-3 with a 2.65 this campaign. McQuillin has been named Pac-12 Pitcher of the Week once and Freshman of the Week twice this year to form a formidable pitching duo for the Wildcats.
Katiyana Mauga leads the Wildcat offense and is a player who affects a lot of games. Mauga bats .316, and has 10 home runs, 34 RBIs, 57 total bases, and has scored 20 times in 2016. Another threat for Arizona on offense is Mo Mercado, who is batting .400, with six home runs, 25 RBIs, and 21 runs.
As if playing Arizona wasn’t hard enough, doing it on the road will be that much tougher for the Utes.
“We don’t know the field as well as we do here — we’re just not as comfortable,” Dickman said.
Even so, Dickman is confident that the Utes are ready to battle the Wildcats.
“We are ready,” Dickman said.
Utah plays Arizona at Hillenbrand Stadium on Thursday, Friday and Saturday this weekend. First pitch on Thursday and Friday is set for 8 p.m. MT, while first pitch on Saturday is at 1:30 p.m.
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