Upcoming Event: Softball versus Salt Lake Community College on October 21, 2025 at 4 p.m.
4 p.m.
Softball
vs Salt Lake Community College
Friday, March 15
Salt Lake City, UT
4 p.m.
University of Utah
vs
No. 24 Oregon
Photo by: Eli Rehmer/Utah Athletics
Ducks, Cougars, Broncos Start Home Slate for Utah Softball
3/13/2024 11:13 PM | Softball
Five home matches in six days open Dumke Family Softball Stadium in 2024
SALT LAKE CITY – Nearly 300 days have passed since the University of Utah softball team last played in front of home fans the Dumke Family Softball Stadium for their NCAA Super Regional finale against San Diego State on May 23 and the Utes are finally primed to take the field at home again and they'll be on their home turf five times in six days from Friday through Wednesday, entertaining three different opponents in Salt Lake City.
Utah's five-game homestand will begin on Friday, when the No. 24 Oregon Ducks come to town to open a three-game series. The series opener will begin at 4 p.m., followed by a Saturday showdown with a 12 p.m. first pitch time and an 11 a.m. finale on Sunday. The Utes will then host the BYU Cougars on Monday at 5 p.m., followed by a date with the Boise State Broncos on Wednesday at 4 p.m.
March 15 – 20 Schedule
How to Follow
Fans can follow all five games live on Utah Live Stream-2 and live stats will also available for each contest through UtahUtes.com.
Last Time Out
The Utes had a difficult task during the first weekend of Pac-12 play, having to open conference competition on road at No. 13 UCLA, but Julia Jimenez's work at the plate provided a bright spot for Utah. Jimenez went 6-for-8 against the Bruins and drove in five runs in eight at-bats. She knocked in two runs during a Utah comeback on Saturday and smacked her first home run of 2024 a day a later. In her last nine games, Jimenez has driven in 12 runs while crafting a .464 batting average.
No one had a higher batting average during Utah's recent nine-game road swing then Haley Denning, who hit .529, put together five multi-hit games and set a career-high with five safeties on March 2 against Wisconsin. Denning continues to sit atop the Pac-12 leaderboard in batting with a .487 average, leads the conference in hits and runs scored and is tied for first in steals. Denning's career average of .397 currently has her at the top of Utah's all-time leaderboard.
Scouting the Opposition
All three squads scheduled to visit Salt Lake City in the next week will be bringing winning record with them, starting with the 14-9 Ducks, who just finished taking two of three from No. 15 California. Two of the stars of the series for Oregon were Ariel Carlson, who homered in each of the first two games, and Morgan Scott, who started game two and entered in relief in game three, earning a win in the latter contest with four innings of one-run ball.
The Cougars have rolled up a mark of 16-6 so far in 2024, largely due to an offense that's hitting .355, third-best in the Big 12. Violet Zavodnik has swung her team's most dangerous bat and owns spots in the top 10 in her conference in average, homers, slugging and on-base percentage. The senior from California, who's currently hitting a team-best .452, is one of three Cougars batting over .400. One of those three is infielder Ailana Agbayani, who's tied for the Big 12 lead in runs scored with 30, and the Cougars' Huntyr Ava is tied for third in the league in RBIs.
The Broncos, who will spend the weekend in Boise before making the trip to Utah, have won their last four games to improve to 15-10. Boise State is attempting to put together a season that will put them in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019 and their power hitting has helped them get off to a good start. Their 31 homers rank in the top 20 nationally and 11 different players have collected at least one long ball. Their leaders in that statistic have been Mykenzie Hanna, who's hit eight, and Sydney Grove, who has three multi-homer games to her credit.
2024 Team Stat Leaders (as of 3/13/2024)
National Rankings
Pac-12 Rankings
Utes on the Pond
The Utes started the season 0-for-5 with the bases loaded, but they've reversed that trend in a big way since. Over their last 18 trips to the plate with the sacks packed, Utah has collected nine hits.
21 Straight Outs for No. 21
On March 3, Sarah Ladd threw just the fourth seven-inning perfect game in Utah history by retiring all 21 Utah Tech hitters she faced in a 5-0 victory. Ladd is the first Utah pitcher to accomplish that feat since Ali Andrus-Sagas in 1995 and the first Ute to throw a perfect game of any type since Miranda Viramontes in 2017. Overall, it goes down as the ninth perfecto in school history.
Haley's the Hit Queen
On March 3, Haley Denning picked up the 264th hit of her Utah career, making her the program's all-time leader in that statistic. She surpassed the previous record of 263, which was set by three-time All-American Hannah Flippen, who played for the Utes from 2014-17.
Denning remains within striking distance of the all-time Utah records for career runs scored and stolen bases as well. She needs 17 more runs scored to best that career mark and 15 more steals to surpass the mark currently owned by Sandy Rhea.
Mariah Lopez Sets a New Career-High
On Monday, Mariah Lopez racked up 15 strikeouts in a complete game win over Utah Tech, setting a new career-high high. She struck out the side twice in that appearance and fell only a single punchout short of matching the program record.
Preseason Placements
The Pac-12 released its annual preseason softball coaches poll and preseason all-conference team on Feb. 1 and Aliya Belarde, Haley Denning, Julia Jimenez and Mariah Lopez all earned all-conference nods, while the Utes were rated third in the league poll.
The Utes' placement in the preseason rankings represents their highest since joining the league, surpassing the fifth-place standing they achieved in 2017 and 2018, and the four preseason all-league honorees doubles the number the program attained in 2023.
Lopez Makes the Watch List
University of Utah softball's senior pitcher Mariah Lopez earned a spot on the USA Softball Player of the Year Top 50 Watch List, which was released on Jan. 24. Lopez is the first Ute to earn this distinction since Alyssa Barrera a was a player of the year watch list selection in 2018.
Senior Class
The 2024 season will be the last one in a Utah uniform for the program's eight-person senior class of Aliya Belarde, Stella Bennett, Haley Denning, Chloe Doyle, Sophie Jacquez, Julia Jimenez, Sarah Ladd and Mariah Lopez.
Five of those eight student-athletes have achieved all-conference status and both Denning and Jimenez can claim All-Pac-12 honors in multiple seasons.
Coaching Staff Additions
Two new faces have joined head coach Amy Hogue's staff for the 2024 campaign. Courtney Martinez comes to Utah from Iowa State and Kaija Gibson has donned Utah colors after spending two years with UCF.
Martinez spent six seasons with the Cyclones, helping the squad reset the program record for homers in a season three times and pile up 37 wins in 2019, the second-highest total in school history. She also helped tutor 2021 First-Team All-American Sami Williams.
Gibson, who not long ago was playing against the Utes with Washington, was part of two Golden Knights teams that won the AAC Tournament Championship to earn spots in the NCAA Tournament. In 2022, UCF rolled up 49 wins and Gibson and her colleagues were named the AAC Coaching Staff of the Year and the NFCA Midwest Region Coaching Staff of the Year.
Season Tickets
Season tickets for the 2024 campaign are now available. Fans can purchase season tickets by calling the Utah ticket office at 801-581-8849 or visit www.utahtickets.com/softball/.
Follow the Utes!
Fans can follow along on social media (Twitter: @Utah_Softball |Instagram: @utahsoftball | Facebook: Facebook.com/Utessoftball).
Utah's five-game homestand will begin on Friday, when the No. 24 Oregon Ducks come to town to open a three-game series. The series opener will begin at 4 p.m., followed by a Saturday showdown with a 12 p.m. first pitch time and an 11 a.m. finale on Sunday. The Utes will then host the BYU Cougars on Monday at 5 p.m., followed by a date with the Boise State Broncos on Wednesday at 4 p.m.
March 15 – 20 Schedule
| Date | Game | Live Stats/Watch |
| March 15 | Oregon at Utah | Live Stats / Watch |
| March 16 | Oregon at Utah | Live Stats / Watch |
| March 17 | Oregon at Utah | Live Stats / Watch |
| March 18 | BYU at Utah | Live Stats / Watch |
| March 20 | Boise State at Utah | Live Stats / Watch |
How to Follow
Fans can follow all five games live on Utah Live Stream-2 and live stats will also available for each contest through UtahUtes.com.
Last Time Out
The Utes had a difficult task during the first weekend of Pac-12 play, having to open conference competition on road at No. 13 UCLA, but Julia Jimenez's work at the plate provided a bright spot for Utah. Jimenez went 6-for-8 against the Bruins and drove in five runs in eight at-bats. She knocked in two runs during a Utah comeback on Saturday and smacked her first home run of 2024 a day a later. In her last nine games, Jimenez has driven in 12 runs while crafting a .464 batting average.
No one had a higher batting average during Utah's recent nine-game road swing then Haley Denning, who hit .529, put together five multi-hit games and set a career-high with five safeties on March 2 against Wisconsin. Denning continues to sit atop the Pac-12 leaderboard in batting with a .487 average, leads the conference in hits and runs scored and is tied for first in steals. Denning's career average of .397 currently has her at the top of Utah's all-time leaderboard.
Scouting the Opposition
All three squads scheduled to visit Salt Lake City in the next week will be bringing winning record with them, starting with the 14-9 Ducks, who just finished taking two of three from No. 15 California. Two of the stars of the series for Oregon were Ariel Carlson, who homered in each of the first two games, and Morgan Scott, who started game two and entered in relief in game three, earning a win in the latter contest with four innings of one-run ball.
The Cougars have rolled up a mark of 16-6 so far in 2024, largely due to an offense that's hitting .355, third-best in the Big 12. Violet Zavodnik has swung her team's most dangerous bat and owns spots in the top 10 in her conference in average, homers, slugging and on-base percentage. The senior from California, who's currently hitting a team-best .452, is one of three Cougars batting over .400. One of those three is infielder Ailana Agbayani, who's tied for the Big 12 lead in runs scored with 30, and the Cougars' Huntyr Ava is tied for third in the league in RBIs.
The Broncos, who will spend the weekend in Boise before making the trip to Utah, have won their last four games to improve to 15-10. Boise State is attempting to put together a season that will put them in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019 and their power hitting has helped them get off to a good start. Their 31 homers rank in the top 20 nationally and 11 different players have collected at least one long ball. Their leaders in that statistic have been Mykenzie Hanna, who's hit eight, and Sydney Grove, who has three multi-homer games to her credit.
2024 Team Stat Leaders (as of 3/13/2024)
| Batting Avg. | Haley Denning | .488 | |
| Slugging % | Abby Dayton | .632 | |
| On Base % | Haley Denning | .500 | |
| Runs Scored | Haley Denning | 26 | |
| Hits | Haley Denning | 39 | |
| RBI | Julia Jimenez | 20 | |
| Doubles | Kaylah Nelsen | 8 | |
| Home Runs | Aliya Belarde Leilani Melendez Abby Dayton |
2 | |
| Stolen Bases | Haley Denning | 16 | |
| ERA | Sarah Ladd | 2.61 (64.1 IP) |
| K's | Mariah Lopez | 78 |
| Wins | Sarah Ladd | 7 |
National Rankings
- Haley Denning owns top 50 spots in the nation in four different statistics, including hits, where her total of 39 has her tied for fourth. She's also eighth in Division I in steals with 16, she ranks 11th in batting average at .488 and she's tied for 27th in runs scored per game with an average of 1.13.
- Abby Dayton has piled up 34 this, tied for 23rd in the country and her .447 average is tied for 47th.
- Aliya Belarde's three triples are tied for 13th in Division I and she's tied for 16th with three sacrifice flies.
- Kaylan Nelsen's eight doubles are tied for 44th in the nation.
- Mariah Lopez has racked up 78 strikeouts, tied for 19th in the country and she ranks 50th in innings pitched.
- As a team, the Utes are hitting .323 so far this season, 31st in the nation.
Pac-12 Rankings
- Haley Denning's 2024 season so far has put her at the top of the conference leaderboard in hitting, runs, hits and tied for first in steals. She's also crafted a .500 on-base percentage, tied for fifth in the conference.
- Aliya Belarde's three triples are tied for second-most in the Pac-12 and she's scored 22 runs, which tied her for fifth.
- Abby Dayton's 34 hits are tied for the fourth-most in the league and she also owns the Pac-12's third-highest average at .447
- Kaylah Nelsen has climbed up to third in the conference in doubles with eight, while Julia Jimenez's 20 RBIs are tied for seventh.
- Sarah Ladd's seven wins are tied for fourth in the Pac-12 and Mariah Lopez's six victories are tied for eighth. Lopez also can claim the league's third-highest strikeout total and she's tied for third in innings pitched.
- As a team, the Utes have collected six triples so far in 2024, tied for second in the Pac-12, and they've accumulated the league's second-lowest strikeout totals.
Utes on the Pond
The Utes started the season 0-for-5 with the bases loaded, but they've reversed that trend in a big way since. Over their last 18 trips to the plate with the sacks packed, Utah has collected nine hits.
21 Straight Outs for No. 21
On March 3, Sarah Ladd threw just the fourth seven-inning perfect game in Utah history by retiring all 21 Utah Tech hitters she faced in a 5-0 victory. Ladd is the first Utah pitcher to accomplish that feat since Ali Andrus-Sagas in 1995 and the first Ute to throw a perfect game of any type since Miranda Viramontes in 2017. Overall, it goes down as the ninth perfecto in school history.
Haley's the Hit Queen
On March 3, Haley Denning picked up the 264th hit of her Utah career, making her the program's all-time leader in that statistic. She surpassed the previous record of 263, which was set by three-time All-American Hannah Flippen, who played for the Utes from 2014-17.
Denning remains within striking distance of the all-time Utah records for career runs scored and stolen bases as well. She needs 17 more runs scored to best that career mark and 15 more steals to surpass the mark currently owned by Sandy Rhea.
Mariah Lopez Sets a New Career-High
On Monday, Mariah Lopez racked up 15 strikeouts in a complete game win over Utah Tech, setting a new career-high high. She struck out the side twice in that appearance and fell only a single punchout short of matching the program record.
Preseason Placements
The Pac-12 released its annual preseason softball coaches poll and preseason all-conference team on Feb. 1 and Aliya Belarde, Haley Denning, Julia Jimenez and Mariah Lopez all earned all-conference nods, while the Utes were rated third in the league poll.
The Utes' placement in the preseason rankings represents their highest since joining the league, surpassing the fifth-place standing they achieved in 2017 and 2018, and the four preseason all-league honorees doubles the number the program attained in 2023.
Lopez Makes the Watch List
University of Utah softball's senior pitcher Mariah Lopez earned a spot on the USA Softball Player of the Year Top 50 Watch List, which was released on Jan. 24. Lopez is the first Ute to earn this distinction since Alyssa Barrera a was a player of the year watch list selection in 2018.
Senior Class
The 2024 season will be the last one in a Utah uniform for the program's eight-person senior class of Aliya Belarde, Stella Bennett, Haley Denning, Chloe Doyle, Sophie Jacquez, Julia Jimenez, Sarah Ladd and Mariah Lopez.
Five of those eight student-athletes have achieved all-conference status and both Denning and Jimenez can claim All-Pac-12 honors in multiple seasons.
Coaching Staff Additions
Two new faces have joined head coach Amy Hogue's staff for the 2024 campaign. Courtney Martinez comes to Utah from Iowa State and Kaija Gibson has donned Utah colors after spending two years with UCF.
Martinez spent six seasons with the Cyclones, helping the squad reset the program record for homers in a season three times and pile up 37 wins in 2019, the second-highest total in school history. She also helped tutor 2021 First-Team All-American Sami Williams.
Gibson, who not long ago was playing against the Utes with Washington, was part of two Golden Knights teams that won the AAC Tournament Championship to earn spots in the NCAA Tournament. In 2022, UCF rolled up 49 wins and Gibson and her colleagues were named the AAC Coaching Staff of the Year and the NFCA Midwest Region Coaching Staff of the Year.
Season Tickets
Season tickets for the 2024 campaign are now available. Fans can purchase season tickets by calling the Utah ticket office at 801-581-8849 or visit www.utahtickets.com/softball/.
Follow the Utes!
Fans can follow along on social media (Twitter: @Utah_Softball |Instagram: @utahsoftball | Facebook: Facebook.com/Utessoftball).
Players Mentioned
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