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.
