Pac-12 College Softball Playoffs creates anticipation and eagerness

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Design by Elisabeth Lee

9 teams will meet in Arizona to compete for a Pac-12 championship.

Trina Lizama, Staff Writer

Many college sports around the country usually play teams around their area during their regular season. For the west coast they have the Pac-12. The Pac-12 is the Pacific-12 Conference for Western United States. There are 24 sports that are in the Pac-12. For college softball, there are multiple D1 teams that play all over the country. Many of these pac-12 softball teams play each other later in the season along with other D1 teams. Pac-12 teams play the D1 teams on the west coast during this tournament.

College softball usually plays people in their conference for most of the year up until playoffs start to happen or they are entered into a tournament. The teams are UCLA, Washington, Oregon, Stanford, Utah, Berkeley, Arizona, Arizona State, and Oregon State. Five of these teams are ranked in the top 25 in D1 NCAA, with UCLA being #2. This season, all these teams have been doing pretty well throughout their regular season. 

It is already anticipated that UCLA will be considered the stars of the tournament and how they will be the team to beat, but don’t count the other colleges out yet. At some point throughout softball season all these teams have been ranked in top 25 and many of them have had amazing games. 

With UCLA having players such as Magan Faraimo and Maya Brady, we can see this team making it close or even being in the College World Series. Stanford is also another team to look out for. With freshman pitcher Nijaree Canady, the teams they will face against will be faced with her skills. Utah will be on any catchers radar with their urge to steal, regardless who the runners are against. 

The first game will kick off on May 10th at 6pm. The games go on till May 13th when the 2 remaining teams play for the championship. The games goes as followed:

May 10th @ 6 pm:

  • No. 8 seed, Arizona State, vs No. 9 seed, Oregon State

May 11th @ 10 am:

  • No. 6 Seed, Berkeley, vs. No. 3 seed, Oregon

  @ 12:30 pm: 

  • No. 7 seed, Arizona, vs. No. 2 seed, Washington

@ 4 pm: 

  • Winner of 10 am game vs. No. 1 seed, UCLA

@ 6:30 pm:

  • No. 5 seed, Utah, vs. No. 4, Stanford

May 12th @ 4:30 pm: 

  • Winner of 10 am game vs. winner of 12:30 pm game

@ 7:30 pm:

  • Winner of 4 pm game vs. winner of 6:30 pm game

May 13th @ 7 pm:

  • Championship game

This tournament is one that most softball fans are excited about. It is the middle of the season and this will give us an insight on what teams have potential to make it to the finals. Many could assume that UCLA will be one of the finalists but can underestimate some of these teams strengths. Many fans hope to see some good softball happening and some exciting wins. Make sure to tune in to these games and don’t miss out on these teams.