No. 20 Cal will travel to Tempe, Arizona, this weekend to face the Arizona State Sun Devils. Although the Bears hold an impressive 31-14 record overall, they seek to improve a less than flattering conference record, 5-11, in the upcoming series. The first game will take place Friday at 5 p.m.
While Cal has been strong in many areas all season, it is undeniable that it has had particular success in power hitting this season. It’s currently the conference leader in total home runs and ranks No. 16 among all NCAA teams.
Three players are in the top ranks for home runs this season: sophomore Elon Butler has the second most in the Pac-12 with 13, and freshman Lagi Quiroga and sophomore Tianna Bell are tied for fourth and eleventh in the conference, respectively.
Another standout player for the Bears at the plate is senior Tatum Anzaldo, who hit her 200th career base hit earlier this month. Her performance has been tremendous recently, as she is batting .525 in the last 17 games and has had one hit in 22 of the last 24 games.
Additionally, they lead in doubles and extra base hits, which is certainly a testament to how well the Bears are seeing the ball as of late. Junior Acacia Anders has largely contributed to these statistics, as she is the league leader in doubles. In fact, at 17, she is only two doubles away from setting a season record for Cal, which is a tremendous feat.
While Anders is encroaching upon this exciting record, she is sure to emphasize that her priority is focusing on the remaining games this season.
“Honestly I don’t really think about stats until after the season’s over,” Anders said. “Obviously that would be a really cool accomplishment, but right now I’m just kind of focusing on each game one by one.”
The Bears are coming off of an intense series against the highly ranked Washington Huskies, in which they dropped their first two games but came back to win Sunday. Cal defeated the No. 8 Huskies in walk-off fashion, creating a frenzy of excitement at Levine-Fricke Field.
“Beating Washington on Sunday was awesome,” Anders said. “I think just going through that series and not just beating ourselves up and getting down when we are potentially losing can create momentum, and hopefully we can keep it going throughout all the upcoming games.”
This will be the final road trip of the regular season for the Bears, before returning to Berkeley for their final home stand before the Pac-12 championship tournament on May 8
