THIS WEEK (Times MST)
52 | Thursday, May 9 |  5,  3 | Recap | Box Score (PDF)
53 | Friday, May 10 |  5,  4 | Recap | Box Score (PDF)
54 | Saturday, May 11 (12 p.m.) |  at  | Pac-12 Los Angeles | Live Stats | Twitter Updates

NCAA Softball Tournament Selection Show | Sunday, May 12 (6 p.m.) | ESPN 2 | Twitter Updates
 

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THIS WEEK: The final week of the 2019 regular season is here and the only two teams in the Pac-12 that still control their own conference fate will meet in the regular season finale in Los Angeles. No. 3 UCLA (45-3, 19-2 Pac-12) and No. 6 Arizona (40-11, 17-4 Pac-12) are set to meet in a Thursday-Saturday series at UCLA. For the Bruins, it's simple, win a game and win the Pac-12 Championship outright. Arizona would win its 13th conference championship with a sweep of UCLA; the Cats have not swept UCLA since 2000 and have not won a series against the Bruins since 2011. Arizona and UCLA will meet Thursday (7 p.m.), Friday (5 p.m.) and Saturday (12 p.m.) in legendary Easton Stadium. The Cats and Bruins, who are both in great position to host both regionals as well as a potential super regional, will find out their postseason fate on Sunday at 6 p.m. MST during the selection show on ESPN2.

LEADING OFF

• The final week of the regular season has arrived for Arizona, which will head to Los Angeles, California for a second-straight top-10 matchup to finish out Pac-12 play. The Wildcats will face No. 3 UCLA in a Thursday-Saturday series at Easton Stadium.
• Arizona is coming off its first Pac-12 series loss of the season; then third-ranked Washington swept the Wildcats at Hillenbrand Stadium last week. The Wildcats, who started the conference season 16-0, are still mathematically alive for the conference championship; UA would have to sweep UCLA for at least a share of the conference title.
• Following UA's three-game series at UCLA, Arizona will return home for the NCAA Softball Selection Show on Sunday at 6 p.m. MST on ESPN2. The Wildcats will hear their names called for an NCAA-record 33rd consecutive time and their current No. 4 RPI bodes well to host an NCAA Regional for the 24th time in program history.
• Arizona is fifth in the nation with a 1.58 ERA; the Cats are trying to finish in the top-five in the NCAA in ERA for the first time since 2006 (4th - 1.10).
• Arizona has hit 92 home runs this season, second most in the country; the Cats have the top two home run hitters in the Pac-12: Jessie Harper (23) and Dejah Mulipola (20). Harper is second and Mulipola is seventh in the NCAA (Mississippi State's Mia Davidson is the NCAA leader with 25 home runs).
• The Wildcats are trying to cross the 100-homer plateau for the seventh time in program history. No other school has hit 100-plus home runs more than thrice in school history.
• Arizona's 92 home runs hit by its offense nearly exceed the total number of runs surrendered by its pitching staff all season (94).  
• Last week, junior second baseman Reyna Carranco, who leads the Pac-12 with a .433 batting average, broke her left hand as well as her right thumb when she was hit by a pitch from Washington's Taran Alvelo. A timetable for Carranco's potential return is unavailable. Last year, Alvelo hit Carranco in the face and broke her nose, costing the then-sophomore two weeks in 2018.
• Arizona placed an NCAA-most three players on the midseason USA Softball Player of the Year Finalists. Junior shortstop Jessie Harper, senior pitcher Taylor McQuillin and junior catcher Dejah Mulipola are three of the 26 finalists for the award.
• In an unprecedented decision, Arizona's entire junior class (six players) was named Arizona Athletics' Female Junior Student-Athlete of the Year at the CATSYS, Arizona Athletics' year-end award banquet. UA's five junior position players (Reyna Carranco, Jessie Harper, Malia Martinez, Dejah Mulipola, Alyssa Palomino-Cardoza) are hitting a combined .362 with 74 total home runs and 254 RBI this season. If the five players were their own team, they would be second in the NCAA in batting average and have the eighth most home runs in the country; their 254 combined RBI is more than 220 Division I teams have scored this season.
• An Arizona junior leads the Pac-12 (or is tied for the lead) in nearly every major statistical category: batting average (Carranco - .433), slugging percentage (Harper - .824), RBI (Harper - 61), doubles (Palomino-Cardoza - 18), home runs (Harper - 23), total bases (Harper - 136) and walks (Mulipola - 37).
• Jessie Harper hit her 60th career home run last weekend, becoming the eighth player in Arizona history and the 16th in Pac-12 history to join the 60 home run club. Only three other Wildcats hit their 60th career homer during their junior season; they are all in the top six in NCAA history in career homers. 
• Arizona's offense is among theNCAA leaders in home runs per game (2nd - 1.80), slugging percentage (6th - .594), scoring (9th - 6.90), batting average (11th - .329) and on-base percentage (13th - .410). 
• Arizona's pitching staff is fifth in the country in ERA (1.58) and seventh in strikeout-to-walk ratio (4.29).
• The UA pitching staff is led by Taylor McQuillin, who is 18-7 (including a Pac-12-most 10 shutouts) this season with a 1.53 ERA. Last month, McQuillin was the sixth overall selection in the 2019 NPF Draft by the Cleveland Comets.
• In 21 conference games, the Wildcats have outscored their Pac-12 opponents 159-31 and have a Pac-12-best 1.35 ERA in league games. With one week remaining in the conference season, Arizona's 159 runs are already its most since 2015 (199).
• Arizona has won 36 of its last 40 games, with its only four losses in that span coming by a combined five runs, three of which came to the current No. 1 (Oklahoma) and No. 5 (Florida State) team in the country.
• Arizona's offense has been heating up with the weather. Since the calendar turned to March (last 36 games), Arizona has averaged 7.56 runs/game and is hitting 1.86 home runs per game after scoring 5.33 runs and hitting 1.67 homers per game in February (15 games).
• Arizona head coach Mike Candrea enters the weekend seven wins shy of Michigan's Carol Hutchins for the most career wins in NCAA softball history. Candrea, who is in his 32nd year of coaching at Arizona, has won 1,603 wins while Hutchins has 1,610 over 36 seasons of coaching. Earlier this year, Candrea moved into fifth all-time in NCAA Division I victories among all sports.

NOTES ON THE BRUINS (45-3, 19-2 Pac-12)

• UCLA enters the week ranked No. 3 in the NFCA Top 25 after winning 2 of 3 at Stanford last weekend.
• The Bruins are one of the best offenses as well as one of the top pitching staffs in the country. They rank third in the country with a .348 batting average and are second nationally with a 1.22 ERA.
• Rachel Garcia was named Pac-12 Pitcher as well as Pac-12 Player of the Year. She is a perfect 20-0 and is second in the country with a 0.71 ERA. She was named the conference's player of the year despite ranking top-10 in just one offensive category (walks - t5th).
• Five different Bruins hit better than .380, led by Kellie Godin, who has hit .441 in 45 appearances.

ARIZONA vs. UCLA

• The most historic rivalry in college softball is renewed this weekend at Easton Stadium. The two most successful programs in the sports history have combined for 19 NCAA titles. 
• UCLA leads the all-time series 83-57 and has won each of the last seven series.
• The Bruins went 5-0 vs. the Wildcats last season, sweeping a three-game series in Tucson (7-6, 7-4, 10-3) and then sweeping the Los Angeles Super Regional (7-1, 3-2) to advance to the Women's College World Series.

LAST WEEK

• Arizona dropped its first Pac-12 series of the season, a three-game sweep at the hands of No. 3 Washington in Tucson.
• The Cats fell in a pair of pitchers' duels in games 1 (1-2) and 2 (1-3) before allowing a season-most seven runs in a 7-4 defeat on Sunday.
• The Wildcats outhit the Huskies in each of the first two games but were a combined 2-for-20 with runners in scoring position in those two games.
• Alyssa Palomino-Cardoza hit two doubles and hit .583 in the series with three multi-hit games.

RANKINGS

• This week, Arizona remained sixth in NFCA Top 25 and fell to sixth in the USA Softball Top 25 (from fourth) and seventh in the Softball America Top 25 (from third).
• UA fell to fourth in this week's NCAA RPI.
• The Wildcats started the season ranked seventh in the NFCA Top 25 and Softball America Top 25 and sixth in the USA Softball Top 25.
• Arizona is one of three Pac-12 teams in the top 10.