College Softball Odds and Ends
With April closing fast and May just around the corner, Division I college softball teams will make the final push to increase their won and loss record before the NCAA Regional and Super Regionals decide the eight teams in the NCAA Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City, the Mecca of college softball.
So far the college season has had its share of surprises and upsets. Some players have lived up to their advance billing or hype while others, for whatever reason or reasons, have fallen short. It’s all part of what makes college softball a fan’s delight with interest certainly at an all time high.
Who would have expected at this time of the season there would be three pitchers undefeated? Alabama sophomore Jackie Traina is 26-0 (second in wins behind Teagan Gerhart of Stanford), freshman Jordan Wallace of Louisiana is 20-0 and Arizona State senior Hillary Bach is 17-0. In fact, Bach is 27-0 over the last two seasons, having won all of her games last season and is now the second winningest pitcher in ASU history behind leader Katie Burkhart (118 wins). Last year the Sun Devils, behind freshman sensation Dallas Escobedo (37-3), won the Women’s College World Series in impressive fashion, going undefeated in five games and not making any miscues in the field---only the third time in Series’ history that this has been accomplished.
So far, Escobedo has had a year that maybe she and others didn’t expect after an outstanding freshman season. She’s 14-4, but looking further you find she’s allowed 16 homers in 116 innings with teams batting .202 against her. Last year she allowed six more homers but hurled twice as many innings (255.2). And the opposition only batted .173 against the hard-throwing right-hander who has compiled an ERA of 2.41 after having an ERA of 1.51 last year. Bach had a high ERA last year allowing almost three runs per game (2.79), but she has lowered it this year to 1.21 in less than 100 innings (98.7).
Sara Nevins of South Florida is the ERA leader (0.74) while two sisters named Ricketts from two different schools are two and three. Senior Stephanie (University of Hawaii) has an ERA of 0.95 while her junior sister, Keilani from the University of Oklahoma, is at 0.96. In fact, Oklahoma leads the nation in ERA through games of April 15 with a team ERA of 0.92.
Besides the quality pitching, Oklahoma has a potent offense with a team batting average of .328, which is 12th among Division One schools. The leader is UCLA with the Bruins having an eye-popping .356 batting average. On the defensive side of the game, Tennessee and Arizona are 1-2 with the Lady Vols having a fielding percentage of .984 with the Wildcats just behind at .983. Arizona head coach Mike Candrea, by the way, collected the 1,300th win of his impressive career in a 4-2 win over Utah April 11th. Candrea is the second winningest coach of all time with a career record of 1300-287-2 (.819). He joins Fresno State’s Margie Wright as the only coaches to win 1,300 games. Candrea is in his 27th year at Arizona.
"I've been blessed to be in a profession that I've thoroughly enjoyed and had a passion for," said Candrea. "I've also been blessed to have coached some great players that have given us those 1,300 wins."
