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• Five Pac-12 softball teams are ranked after the opening week of play, including No. 1 WASHINGTON, No. 3 UCLA, No. 4 ARIZONA, No. 21 OREGON and No. 23 ARIZONA STATE. The Huskies were voted the No. 1 team in the country with 25 first-place votes in the latest USA Today/NFCA Coaches Poll. 

• Five Pac-12 softball teams have perfect records after the first weekend of competition, including Washington, Arizona, Oregon and UTAH at 5-0, and UCLA at 6-0. The conference represents five of 24 undefeated teams remaining in NCAA Division I softball.

• Washington takes on USA Softball at the St. Pete Clearwater Elite Invitational on Sunday, Feb. 16, at 9:30 a.m. PST on ESPN3. The Huskies will be joined by the Bruins at the Elite Invitational and will be featured a combined 10 times on ESPN channels, combining for a total of seven top-25 matchups. 

THIS WEEK IN PAC-12 SOFTBALL: The conference boasts a 42-6 (.875) overall record, highlighted by three wins over ranked teams. This weekend, then-No. 22/23 Arizona State took down then-No. 14 Northwestern in a walk-off upset on Sunday. The Sun Devils were boosted by senior Kindra Hackbarth’s two-run home run in the bottom of the seventh inning. It marked ASU’s first walk-off victory since last season on March 24, 2019 against Utah.

Utah also pulled off an upset-win over Northwestern (3-2) and then-No.5 Arizona took down then-No. 12 Tennessee in run rule fashion, 8-0.

Oregon pitcher Brooke Yanez earned NFCA National Pitcher of the Week honors on Tuesday Feb. 11 following a stellar debut weekend as a Duck at the Puerto Vallarta College Challenge. Yanez went 3-0 in three appearances and posted a 0.50 ERA. Over 14 innings pitched, the junior struck out 25 and walked just two. Yanez is ranked 13th in the nation in strikeouts (25) and eight in strikeout-to-walk ratio (12.5).

THE WEEK AHEAD: The Pac-12 has several mid-week matchups beginning Wednesday as Washington travels to Orlando, Fla., to face UCF. The Huskies take on the Knights before heading to Clearwater.

STANFORD hosts the Stanford Invitational starting Friday and Utah heads to Mexico for the second session of the Puerto Vallarta Challenge. Other early season tournaments include: Arizona hosting the Hillenbrand Invitational, ASU hosting the Littlewood Classic, CALIFORNIA at the Fresno State Invitational, and Oregon and OREGON STATE at the Houston Tournament. 

NATIONAL STAT LEADERS: Three Pac-12 teams’ batting averages rank in the top-15 with UCLA in fourth (.423), Washington in ninth (.397) and Arizona in 12th (.382).

Five Pac-12 teams are ranked in the top-25 in earned run average with OSU in second (0.21), Oregon in fourth (0.44), UCLA in 16th (1.00) and Utah in 19th(1.06). Three teams are ranked in the top-25 on base percentage with UCLA ranked sixth (.497), Washington 10th (.472) and Arizona 18th (.458). All three teams, with the addition of ASU, are also ranked in the top-25 in scoring. 

The Pac-12 has a number of standout batters, including one of the nation’s home run leaders in Maya Brady of UCLA who is tied for first with four. Sis Bates of Washington and Taylor Gindlesperger of Stanford are tied for fifth in hits, with 10 apiece.

Pitching staffs around the league rank among the nation’s toughest as six teams rank top-20 in shutouts with No. 1 UCLA (4), No. 2 Oregon (3) and four teams tied for 10th in Arizona State, Oregon State, Stanford and Arizona (2). UCLA and Oregon lead the country at first and third in strikeout-to-walk ratio at 25.00 and 17.33, respectively. 

Oregon is one of only three teams in Division I softball with a perfect fielding percentage, and the only team in the top-three with more than four games played.

PLAYERS OF THE WEEK: UCLA freshman infielder Maya Brady (Thousand Oaks, Calif.) was tabbed both Player of the Week and Freshman of the week after putting up a stat line of 6 GP, 9 hits, 4 HR, 9 RBI, .500 AVG, .550 OBP. In then-No. 4 UCLA’s opening weekend of the regular season,she helped the Bruins go 6-0 and had hits in all six games in her collegiate debut. Homered in four of her first five contests, including three consecutive games on Feb. 8 and 9. The freshman both scored a run and drove in a run in five of six games. She did not record a strikeout on the weekend.

UCLA sophomore Megan Faraimo (Vista, Calif.) was voted pitcher of the week after putting up a stat line of 3 GP, 3 wins, 17.0 IP, 33 K, 0.41 ERA. She helped then-No.4 UCLA to an undefeated weekend after winning all three games she started, going the distance each time, against CSU Bakersfield on Thursday (14-0), Pittsburgh on Saturday (4-0) and San Diego on Sunday (9-1). The sophomore pitcher struck out 33 players over 17 innings and did not issue a walk.

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