Arizona’s Pac-12 softball champions got a rare mid-May week off as they prepare for their sport’s version of Selection Sunday.
The off week resulted for two reasons: because USC, Colorado and Washington State do not have softball programs, the Pac-12 has an odd number of teams (nine) and one team has a bye each weekend.
Finding a May non-conference series is difficult because the SEC, ACC, Big Ten and Big 12 all have conference tournaments and the West’s smaller schools are booked this month.
The Pac-12 doesn’t have a post-season tournament mostly because there are so few suitable venues and a relative lack of interest outside of Tucson. It would be a money-losing operation. Only Arizona’s Hillenbrand Stadium and Oregon’s new Sanders Stadium could sell more than 2,000 tickets per day.
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No interest? When Utah won two of three from No. 1 ranked Arizona a month ago – the greatest weekend in Utes softball history – attendance was 394, 378 and 836.
The week off can’t hurt Mike Candrea’s squad. Some contend that the UA’s franchise pitcher, Danielle O’Toole, tired down the stretch. True, O’Toole has pitched a Pac-12 high 195 innings pitched – no one else in the league has pitched more than 142 innings – but as of Friday there were 17 Division pitchers with 200-plus innings.
When Arizona last won the NCAA title, 2007, pitcher Taryne Mowatt pitched a school-record 370 innings. Arizona’s hope to get to the Women’s College World Series swings on O’Toole’s ability to win about four games in the next two weeks.
About the last thing a college softball team needs is to squeeze four games into a three-day period before the NCAAs, as is likely for No. 6 Oklahoma this week at the Big 12 tournament in Oklahoma City. Essentially, those games have no bearing on Sooner’s seed in the NCAA playoffs.
