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Friday April 20, 2001

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The title fight

Headline Photo

KEVIN KLAUS

Senior third baseman Toni Mascarenas slides into second base during Wednesday night's doubleheader against Fresno State at Hillenbrand Stadium. The Wildcats will take on Stanford this weekend at home.

By Brett Erickson

Arizona Daily Wildcat

No. 2 Wildcats take on No. 3 Stanford, No. 4 Cal with top spot in Pac-10 on line

The top spot in the Pacific 10 Conference is on the line tonight when the No. 2 Arizona softball team hosts No. 3 Stanford at Hillenbrand Stadium.

The Wildcats (43-4 overall, 5-2 Pac-10) trail the Cardinal (40-5-1, 7-2) by one game in the standings and could take over sole possession of first place with a win.

Arizona also faces No. 4 California (44-6, 3-5) tomorrow and Sunday.

"It's a big weekend for us," UA head coach Mike Candrea said. "Stanford is a good team, and so is Cal, so we just need to play Arizona softball and do what we do best."

Candrea's team enters tonight's game riding the momentum of a pair of emotional two-game sweeps against top-15 opponents.

Wednesday, Arizona swept No. 14 Fresno State, including a come-from-behind, nine-inning 8-7 victory in the nightcap.

Senior shortstop Allison Andrade had three home runs on the night and added the game-winning single to plate freshman Kim Balkan.

The Wildcats won the first game 9-1, as senior Lauren Bauer went 3-for-3 with two home runs and a double.

Last weekend, the Wildcats took two dramatic games from Arizona State.

Saturday, Balkan homered in the ninth inning to propel the Wildcats to a 4-3 win. Junior Jennie Finch was the star of Friday's game, as she worked all 11 innings in the pitching circle and hit the game-winning three-run homer in the 11th inning as Arizona won 3-0.

Finch (18-0) picked up all four wins for Arizona and will be in the circle tonight against Stanford. Her likely counterpart will be Cardinal All-American Dana Sorensen. The sophomore is 21-1 on the season with a minuscule 0.38 ERA.

Sorensen has struck out 233 batters in 146 innings.

The Golden Bears, meanwhile, have stumbled a bit after getting off to a 32-0 start. Since conference play began three weeks ago, the Bears have dropped five of eight games, including two of three to Stanford last weekend.

California also has a bit of a score to settle with Arizona, as the Wildcats eliminated the Bears from last year's College World Series 6-0 May 27.

"Both Stanford and Cal are great teams, so it's going to be another one of those weekends in the Pac-10," freshman Jenny Gladding said.