Cal softball’s 22-game win streak, its perfect record at home and its 27-3 record in the past few weeks have all been in anticipation of the next few weeks of conference play.
Now that the nonconference schedule is over, the Bears are heading into their toughest stretch of the season. Cal will battle its first ranked Pac-12 opponent, Arizona, at Hillenbrand Memorial Stadium in Tucson, Ariz., this Tuesday and Wednesday in a three-game series with a doubleheader on Tuesday.
“Keeping our endurance is going to be the biggest challenge,” said catcher Lindsey Ziegenhirt. “Playing a doubleheader and then playing one more is tough on any team. We need to come out with the same energy and intensity for all three games.”
The Bears (27-3) have already started Pac-12 play with a three-game sweep of Utah last weekend in Cal’s first home series of the season. More impressively, Utah never had the lead at any point during its three games against the Bears.
On the other hand, Arizona is fresh off a loss to Utah in which the Wildcats made two errors that gave Utah three unearned runs and eventually lost the game, 8-4.
No. 5 Cal hopes to keep its perfect conference record intact against No. 17 Arizona, which is led by sophomore stars catcher Chelsea Goodacre and outfielder Hallie Wilson. The Wildcats have maintained a team .308 batting average, thanks to a combined 81 hits by Goodacre and Wilson. Goodacre won the Pac-12 All-Freshman honorable mention while Wilson made the Pac-12 All-Freshman second team last season, and the two are now leading Arizona in hits and batting average.
“We have to be sharper in the things we do in the Pac-12, since they have better scouting reports on us since we play the same teams every year,” said head coach Diane Ninemire. “We need to create opportunities, capitalize on those opportunities and play practically errorless defense.”
Senior captain Jolene Henderson will be occupied trying to stifle the Wildcats’ offense. Henderson, who won her 120th career game during the sweep of Utah, making her Cal’s winningest pitcher of all time, is pitching a phenomenal 0.90 ERA andv has struck out 174 hitters this season.
Arizona will most likely try a number of different pitchers against Cal’s dominant offense, including junior Shelby Babcock. The Wildcats’ pitchers are holding their opponents to a .250 batting average this season.
The key to success this series will be Cal’s offense capitalizing on the Wildcats’ pitching. Ziegenhirt and outfielder Cheyenne Cordes are the stars of the Bears’ offense, leading the team in batting average, hits and RBIs, and will need to step up to take the series.
A series sweep is necessary for the Bears so that they can prepare themselves for upcoming No. 10 Oregon, No. 12 UCLA and No. 2 Arizona State.
“Our season is split up in three different areas: preseason, Pac-12 play and postseason,” Ziegenhirt said. “They’re all just preparation for the last game of the season. Pac-12 is a really good indicator of what we need to work on to get to the postseason.”
Johnny Zhang covers softball. Contact him at [email protected] Follow him on Twitter @thejohnnyzhang.