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Husky Softball Notebook: Top 25 Knockout

#4 Washington sweeps ASU from rankings; five games in Utah await

By ekstrong
Edward Strong

Washington earned their fourth straight sweep in Pac-12 play, knocking then-#24 Arizona State out of the NFCA Top 25.

  • UW 8, ASU 4
  • UW 9, ASU 2
  • UW 6, ASU 0

The Huskies spend their final week before their bye in the Beehive State, playing five games in six days starting Wednesday at 5:00 (see end of article for full schedule).

Notes

  • Senior center fielder Amirah Milloy had two extra-base hits in a game for the fourth time in as many weeks, but it wasn’t on Sunday this time as it was each of the last three occasions. She went 2-for-2 with a two-run double, a three-run homer, and a sacrifice bunt on Friday for a career-high five RBI.
  • Freshman right fielder Madison Huskey won her first Pac-12 Freshman of the Week award as she went 4-for-7 with a pair of home runs against the Sun Devils. She didn’t play a lot in non-conference play, but since getting a pair of hits including her first career homer in the final game vs UCLA on March 17, she’s started every game but one. Her four home runs are second only to Morganne Flores.
  • Speaking of Flores, the junior catcher/first baseman hit three more bombs against ASU and is up to fifteen long balls on the season. However, her 0-for-4 game on Friday was her first game without either a hit, walk or RBI since each of the first two games against the Bruins.
  • Freshman third baseman SilentRain Espinoza appears to have secured the third base job, having fully recovered from an injury that kept her to just very limited two appearances (one start) between March 3 and April 5. She doesn’t offer much (if any) pop with no extra-base hits, but her .451 on-base percentage is helpful for starting rallies, especially for a Husky team that struggles to score runs at times.

Pac-12 Standings (current through Tues, 4/16; rankings are NFCA Coaches/Softball America):

  1. #6/3 Arizona (35-7, 12-0 Pac-12)
  2. #2/2 UCLA (37-2, 11-1)
  3. #3/7 Washington (35-6, 12-3)
  4. RV/NR Stanford (30-7, 7-2)
  5. RV/NR Arizona State (25-17, 5-10)
  6. Utah (14-26, 3-9)
  7. Oregon State (21-15, 3-10)
  8. Oregon (17-21, 2-10)
  9. California (23-20, 2-12)

Around #Pac12SB

  • UCLA suffered its first conference loss on Friday 4-3 to Oregon before bouncing back to take the series in Los Angeles. Oregon's Jordan Dail had the best outing against the Bruins of any pitcher in a month, allowing three runs over seven innings and striking out 12. UCLA hadn't even struck out more than five times in a game since their trip to Seattle four weeks ago.
  • Similarly, Stanford suffered an upset on Friday but rallied to win the series against Utah in Palo Alto.
  • Oregon State won their first series of the season but came up short of a sweep as Cal took the final game in Berkeley.
  • Arizona was off from conference play, but swept a three-game series from in-state foe Grand Canyon in Phoenix.

Pac-12 Schedule

Note: All Pac-12 series go from Thursday to Saturday this week to avoid playing on Easter Sunday.

  • Washington at Utah
  • Stanford at Arizona
  • UCLA at Oregon State
  • California at Oregon

Arizona State is completely off this week.

UW schedule (all times PDT)

  • 5 p.m., Wed, 4/17: at BYU (20-19, 5-1 WCC) BYUtv
  • 5 p.m., Thu, 4/18: at Utah (Pac-12 WA/Mountain)
  • 5 p.m., Fri, 4/19: at Utah (Pac-12 WA/Mtn)
  • 11 a.m., Sat, 4/20: at Utah (Pac-12 WA/Mtn)
  • 10 a.m., Mon, 4/22: at Utah Valley (12-23, 4-8 WAC) WAC Digital Network

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