Arizona heads into its second season of Big 12 play on a roll, having won five in a row by the run rule.
The No. 14-ranked Wildcats (17-5) have also won seven of their last eight, including a road win over then-No. 10 Stanford.
Arizona's Tayler Biehl on the move vs. Howard University during the Hillenbrand Invitational, Feb. 28, 2026.
Over the weekend, the Wildcats outscored opponents 48-4 at the Hillenbrand Invitational. The one time Arizona did trail, 2-0 in the top of the first on Sunday, to Long Beach State ended as a 12-2 UA win after scoring eight in the first at bat.
“I really liked what I saw this weekend as far as complete performances," said UA head coach Caitlin Lowe. "I thought we were able to provide momentum on the mound, provide momentum defensively and provide momentum offensively. I thought we were way more confident in any given situation offensively.
“So yeah, I just want to continue that trend going forward and understand that we talked a lot before last weekend about being in control of our destiny and if we can control our game, then we're going to be in a good spot.”
Arizona opens conference play with a three-game series against BYU starting Thursday.
At the Hillenbrand invite, Arizona sophomore infielder Sereniti Trice hit .714, scored eight runs and struck out zero times.
“I think it's just ideal for the team to kind of have that confidence, I think that was important for us to kind of fine tune our hitting, our defense, our pitching, all of that,” Trice said about getting five run-rule wins before Big 12 play starts. “So I think we're in a good spot right now.”
Arizona's Sereniti Trice led the Cats with three hits vs. Minnesota, Feb. 27, 2026, in Tucson.
Last year UA went 17-7 in its first year in the Big 12 but opened league play with a series loss to UCF. Arizona would go on to finish in second place in the conference in the regular season and fell to Texas Tech 4-0 in the Big 12 title game.
“I think Big 12 is a very competitive conference,” said Trice, who played for Iowa State last year. “So it could be anyone's ball game any day, which I think is really fun and cool because we get to actually compete.”
Arizona senior Sydney Stewart, who went to Washington her first two seasons and is from San Jose, Calif., liked the experience of seeing new places in the Big 12.
“When I was at my previous school, it's in the Pac-12 years, we stay on the west coast and now that we get to kind of experience traveling to different places like the Midwest ... I think it's just cool to see a few different places, play different teams and just knowing the Big 12 is high in competition,” Stewart said. “You're always gonna be facing a good team, good pitcher, good hitter, so always just being prepared for that and kind of helps you prepare for each team that you play.”
Sydney Stewart in action vs. Eastern Illinois at Hillenbrand Stadium, Feb. 26, 2026.
Besides the Wildcats, the Big 12 features three other teams ranked in the USA Softball poll: No. 2 Texas Tech, No. 12 Oklahoma State and No. 21 ASU.
Lowe said the league is “really strong.”
“We have some of the best pitching in the country that we're facing … but as with anything for the postseason, you want conference to prepare you for that and I think we face some really, really strong offenses as far as our pitching staff goes and as far as our defense goes and then we're gonna face some of the best arms in the country,” Lowe said. “So it's going to do a lot to prepare us and I think the challenge becomes how do we get better throughout a weekend versus the other team, so I think failure recovery is really important, I think, making adjustments is really big for us going into this weekend.”
Texas Tech is No. 3 in the country in batting (.412), while Iowa State is 24th (.352). Arizona is 33rd at .347.
Texas Tech is fourth in the land in ERA (1.24), while Utah is No. 8 (1.68), UCF is 17th (2.16).
The Red Raiders are No. 3 in the nation in runs with 240, UCF ninth (180), ASU 10th (177), UA is No. 14 (169), OSU 19th (155) and Iowa State is No. 23 (150).
BYU comes to town with a 5-14 record, but has played five games against ranked opponents in Florida, Texas and California. The Cougars’ first home game is March 10.
"I think everyone's going to be hungry, I think once pre-conference ends and conference begins, it's kind of like a new slate, new season for everyone to kind of hit refresh, so we have to make sure that we set the tone,” Lowe said. “We didn’t love the way we set the tone last year with UCF, so I think it's going to be really important to take every game as it comes, but also just be present in every moment.
“We're not going to win the conference in one game, but we do need to make sure we're doing our job in the moment and not making anything too big.”
Extra bases
– The series is a homecoming for BYU junior pitcher/outfielder Gianna Mares, who went to Salpointe Catholic. Mares has a .238 on-base percentage in the box and a 3-4 record in the circle, with a 6.07 ERA and 49 strikeouts over 45 innings.
– Arizona remained No. 14 in the primary rankings, the USA Softball poll. It moved up a spot in the NFCA coaches’ poll to No. 13, up in the D1 Softball rankings to 14th and up a spot to No. 18 according to Softball America.
– Softball America selected UA junior utility Regan Shockey as its Defender of the Week. She had a perfect fielding percentage, nine putouts and threw a runner out at home from center field to complete a double play.
– On Thursday, UA is giving away Gold Glove coins. Saturday is Rodeo Day, which features a boot mug giveaway.
