By
Brett Erickson
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Arizona heads to Bay Area with chance at claiming Pac-10 title
For most college softball teams, May is a month known for being hotter than those before it. For Arizona, it's do-or-die time.
Or as UA head coach Mike Candrea puts it, time for "fight or flight."
Candrea said the softball season can be divided up into three sub-seasons -non-conference, Pacific 10 Conference and postseason. And while No. 1 Arizona's ultimate goal is to win its last postseason game for the first time in four seasons, that can't be done without first taking care of business against conference opponents.
Arizona (51-4 overall, 13-2 Pac-10) will begin its quest for the program's sixth NCAA title May 17-20 at the NCAA Regional Tournament, which will likely be played at Hillenbrand Stadium.
Before the postseason begins, the Wildcats will wrap up their regular season during the next 10 days against four teams in the top 13, including the three squads that sit right behind Arizona in the USA Today/NFCA rankings.
This stretch begins in the Bay Area this weekend, as Arizona faces No. 4 California (48-10, 5-9) Friday and No. 3 Stanford (44-9-1, 9-6) Saturday and Sunday. UA hosts No. 2 UCLA and No. 13 Washington next weekend.
The Wildcats beat the Cardinal 7-0 at home earlier this season, and also swept a pair of 2-1 games from the Golden Bears that same weekend.
"Both of them are very good teams," said senior Toni Mascarenas, who is second on the team in hitting (.403) and home runs (16). "Going up there, they're going to want to get some revenge on us because we beat them both here."
Of the three sub-seasons, Candrea said the non-conference portion of Arizona's schedule provides his players with opportunities to improve their physical tools, such as fielding.
Conference games seem to serve another purpose.
"The Pac-10 season is about refining the mental side of the game," Candrea said. "Mentally, it's always a roller-coaster season."
Mascarenas said the team is playing well as of late - as evidenced by its 12-game winning streak - but can still use the weekend road trip to work on the fundamentals.
"We're just making little mistakes - missing signs, baserunning, making errors," she said. "To get where we need to be, we need to limit those things."
Arizona will likely face two of the nation's top pitchers this weekend in Stanford's Dana Sorensen and Cal's Jocelyn Forest. Both rank in the top four in strikeouts per seven innings with 11.1 and 10.9, respectively.
The Wildcats beat Forest 2-1 in eight innings April 22, but did not face Sorensen that weekend because of her injured back.
Going up against Forest Friday will likely be UA ace Jennie Finch, who leads the nation with a 0.24 ERA and is also a perfect 23-0 on the season.
Arizona is also led by senior Lauren Bauer, who leads the Pac-10 and is fifth in the country with a .447 batting average. Bauer also is first in the conference in runs (69) and hits (85).
With an Arizona sweep and a loss by UCLA to either Oregon or Oregon State, the Wildcats would claim their sixth Pac-10 title, and first since 1998.
Even so, Candrea is more worried about getting his team prepared to compete for an even bigger prize.
"The Pac-10 title is not at the forefront of my mind right now," he said. "It's a part of the process, and it will happen if we continue to make the little steps."
