Huskies Travel To Utah For Final Regular Season Pac-12 Matchup
SEATTLE – No. 9 Washington softball concludes the regular season in Salt Lake City for a three-game series at Utah beginning on Friday night.
The Huskies enter the series with an overall record of 31-10 and 13-8 in Pac-12 play. UW is currently third in the conference standings ahead of the Pac-12 Tournament next weekend. Utah enters the weekend with a record of 30-19 (8-13 Pac-12) and sixth in the conference standings.
WEEKEND SCHEDULE
Friday, May 3
at Utah
Salt Lake City, Utah | Dumke Family Softball Stadium
5 p.m. PT | Pac-12 Mountain | Live Stats
Saturday, May 4
at Utah
Salt Lake City, Utah | Dumke Family Softball Stadium
11 a.m. PT | Pac-12 Washington & Mountain | Live Stats
Sunday, May 5
at Utah
Salt Lake City, Utah | Dumke Family Softball Stadium
12 p.m. PT | Pac-12 Mountain | Live Stats
RANKING ROUNDUP
The Huskies have been ranked in the Top 15 in 131 consecutive NFCA polls. The last time UW was not in the Top 15 was in the preseason poll in 2016 where the Huskies were No. 20.
TOUGH SCHEDULE
The Huskies' 2024 schedule includes 10 teams ranked in the Top 25 preseason poll by either the NFCA or USA Softball. The teams include Oklahoma, Florida State, Stanford, Oklahoma State, UCLA, Utah, LSU, Oregon, Nebraska, Kentucky while 2024 opponents Arizona, Arizona State, Minnesota and Cal are receiving votes. So far, UW has a record of 7-6 against Top 25 teams (at the time the game was played). Washington has had a pair of ranked games canceled due to weather in LSU (at Clearwater) and Florida State (at Jane Sanders Classic).
ROAD DAWGS
The Huskies opened the first four weeks of the season on the road opening up at the Puerto Vallarta College Challenge Feb. 8-10. Washington will then head to Florida for 10 days starting off at the Clearwater Invitational, followed by a pair of midweek games at Florida Gulf Coast and Stetson before ending the trip at the South Florida Showdown hosted by USF. UW then made its way down to Eugene, Ore. for the Jane Sanders Classic, Feb. 29-March 2. Washington is 9-4 in true road games and 11-2 in neutral site contests this season. At the conclusion of the regular season, the Huskies will have traveled 19,382 miles with 11,890 miles occurring in the non-conference slate.
LOCK DOWN DEFENSE
Washington ranks fourth nationally with a .981 fielding percentage. The 21 errors are the fewest in the NCAA. Six Huskies post a perfect fielding percentage in Jillian Celis, Olivia Johnson, Avery Hobson, Brooklyn Carter, Ruby Meylan and Jing Gardner. Celis leads the team with 77 assists and helped turn eight double plays.
RECIPE FOR SUCCESS
Washington is one of seven teams nationally - and only team in the conference - to have a team batting average of over .320 while also posting a team ERA of 2.50 or better (also Boston U, Duke, Grand Canyon, Oklahoma, Southeastern La. and Texas).
HOME SWEET HOME
Since 2018, the Huskies have posted a 101-23 record at Husky Softball Stadium, including a 17-3 record in 2023. Washington is 11-4 at home this season.
RECORD ATTENDANCE
Washington set the program weekend attendance record against Stanford (April 26-28) this past weekend with 6,455. The Sunday game three attendance of 2,217 is the most attended game in the regular season. Last year, 2,266 attended game two of the Super Regional against Louisiana. 22,353 fans have walked through the gates so far this season.
HUSKY BATS ARE HOT
As a team, the Huskies have homered in 13 of the last 14 games. Over that span, Washington has hit 27 homers. On the season, UW is 11th nationally with 1.44 home runs per game. Washington has six Huskies in the Top 25 in the conference in slugging percentage. Brooke Nelson is fifth in the Pac-12 at .712 followed by Rylee Holtorf (8th, .672), Alana Johnson (9th, .661), Kinsey Fiedler (15th, .603), Jillian Celis (21st, .579), and Sydney Stewart (24th, .548). The team is first in the conference with a .549 slugging percentage.
PAC-12 HONORS
The Huskies have earned five Pac-12 weekly awards this season after Rylee Holtorf (player) and Sidne Peters (freshman) were honored earlier this month. Holtorf hit a pair of home runs – including the walk-off in game three – to help the Huskies sweep Oregon State. Peters recorded a pair of wins in 2.2 innings with five strikeouts and no hits allowed. Jillian Celis was named Player of the Week after the Jane Sanders Classic. Jadyn Glab earned freshman of the week during opening weekend and Ruby Meylan was named pitcher of the week during the second weekend.
DAWGS WORLDWIDE
Ruby Meylan, Lindsay Lopez, Jillian Celis, Sis Bates and Heather Tarr all represented national teams this summer along with former Huskies Ali Aguilar, Taran Alvelo and Baylee Klingler. Future Husky Morgan Reimer played with Team Canada in the Pan American Games. Meylan played with Team USA at the Japan All-Star Series in August. Bates, Tarr, Aguilar and Klingler participated with the US National Team at the WBSC World Cup Group A and Pan American Games. Lopez and Celis represented Mexico at the Canada Cup and Pan American Games while Alvelo played with Team Puerto Rico at the World Cup qualifier and Pan American Games.
Last month, Tarr was once again named head coach of the US Women's National Team for this summer at the WBSC Women's Softball World Cup Finals held in Castions di Strada, Italy. She will be joined with Bates who was named to the WBSC World Cup roster last week as part of the US Women's National Team. Klingler will compete with the US Women's Elite Team at the Japan All-Star Series.
GETTING IT DONE IN THE CIRCLE
Last season, Ruby Meylan (18) and Lindsay Lopez (14) led the pitching staff in wins. It marked the first time since 2019 (Gabbie Plain - 24 and Taran Alvelo - 26) that the Huskies had a pair of pitchers with double digit wins. The duo is on track to do it again, with Lopez at 10 and Meylan sitting at nine wins. Brooke Nelson has also recorded five victories and Sidne Peters with seven. The last time the Huskies had three pitchers with 10 or more wins was in 2012 with Kaitlin Inglesby (19), Kasey Stanchek (10) and Bryana Walker (10). All four Husky pitchers have recorded at least one complete game.
LIGHTNING FAST SPEED
Brooklyn Carter is off to a fast start on the bases. In 33 games, Carter has 19 stolen bases, which is third-most in the conference. Against Iowa State, she tied a program record with four steals in a game becoming the first Husky since 2000 to record that feat. Last season, Carter had 28 stolen bases. She has stolen 42 consecutive bases, which is the longest streak in the nation. As a team, UW has 63 stolen bases which ranks 56th in the nation. In addition to Carter, Avery Hobson (10), Kinsey Fiedler (8), Rylee Holtorf (7), Sydney Stewart (7), Alana Johnson (4), Jillian Celis (2), Jing Gardner (2) and Brooke Nelson (2) all have multiple stolen bases.
NELSON GOES YARD (AGAIN)
Brooke Nelson had a pair of multi-home run games last week at Oregon (4/6/24) and at Boise State (4/10/24). The game at Oregon was Nelson's first multi-home run game. The last time a Husky had two multi-home run games in a span of four days was Morganne Flores in 2019 when she had two home runs at Oregon (3/24/19) and vs. Cal Poly (3/27/19). She recorded her third multi-home run game of the month in game two at Cal on April 20.
CONSISTENT CELIS
Fifth-year senior Jillian Celis has started in every single game of her career between her time at San Diego State and Washington. She has started in 224 games - 183 at SDSU and 41 at UW. Celis is 51st among active DI softball student-athletes with 221 hits in her career. She is tied for 13th with 49 doubles.
NO-NO
Fifth-year senior Brooke Nelson recorded her first career no-hitter and 50th in program history against Loyola Chicago at the South Florida Showdown. Nelson struck out five in the outing and allowed only one walk in the second inning to the leadoff batter. It was the first Husky no-hitter since Kelley Lynch and Ruby Meylan combined for one at Oregon State last season. Lynch also threw a no-hitter earlier in the year against Bethune-Cookman at Mary Nutter.
ALL-AROUND FIEDLER
Kinsey Fiedler has played seven positions during her time as a Husky. As a freshman she saw time at second base and shortstop. As a sophomore added first base and catcher. This season she has seen action at third base, left field and center field.
CAREER WIN NO. 800
On Feb. 24, head coach Heather Tarr recorded career win No. 800 following an 8-0 run-rule victory over Yale at the South Florida Showdown. Tarr is Washington's all-time leader in wins in all sports. Among active Division I softball head coaches, Tarr is 28th in career wins (819). Only 12 other head coaches with more win have coached at one school. Her .728 winning percentage ranks 10th among DI active coaches that have coached five or more seasons.
ALL-TIME VS. UTAH
Washington is 40-11 all-time versus Utah. The two teams met five times last season - three during the regular season, in the Pac-12 tournament and in the Women's College World Series with Washington taking the season series 3-2.
SCOUTING THE UTES
Utah enters the weekend series with a record of 30-19 and 8-13 in Pac-12 play. The Utes are sixth in the conference standings. Abby Dayton leads the team with a .449 batting average. Kaylah Nelsen leads the team with 15 doubles while Julia Jimenez is the team leader with 40 RBI and five home runs. Mariah Lopez leads the pitching staff with a 2.26 ERA with four shutouts, 196 strikeouts, 15 complete games and a 19-10 record over 180 innings. As a team, the Utes post a 3.15 ERA with nine shutouts.
For more information on the UW softball team, follow @UWSoftball on X and Instagram.