Utah Softball to Honor Seniors on Final Home Weekend

Friday, May 3

Salt Lake City, UT

6 p.m.

University of Utah

No. 9 Washington

Photo by: Eli Rehmer/Utah Athletics

Utah Softball to Honor Seniors on Final Home Weekend

5/1/2024 3:37 PM | Softball

No. 9 Washington is on the docket Utah

SALT LAKE CITY – One more weekend of regular season play remains for the University of Utah softball team on their 2024 schedule and it will pit them against the No. 9 Washington Huskies, first on Friday at 6 p.m., followed by a Saturday matchup at 12 p.m., and concluding with a 1 p.m. contest on Sunday at the Dumke Family Softball Stadium in Salt Lake City.

May 3 – 5 Schedule

Date	Game	Live Stats/Watch
May 3	Washington at Utah	Live Stats / Watch
May 4	Washington at Utah	Live Stats / Watch
May 5	Washington at Utah	Live Stats / Watch

How to Follow
The Pac-12 family of networks will be the broadcast home for all three games against UW and fans can also tune in to ESPN 700 AM and 92.1 FM to hear Bill Riley call all the action. Links to the live broadcast and live stats are all available on UtahUtes.com.

Game Day Promotions
The Utes will spend the weekend honoring their senior class of Aliya Belarde, Stella Bennett, Chloe Doyle, Sophie Jacquez, Julia Jimenez, Sarah Ladd and Mariah Lopez. Each senior will have one of their parents throw out a first pitch on Sunday, followed by a postgame ceremony honoring the entire group.

Also on the list of festivities is Dark Mode Night at Dumke on Friday, with all fans being encouraged to wear black and black rally towels being handed out to first 200 people through the ballpark gates. Fans can then switch to red for Saturday's Red Out, which will also be Alumni Day as part of Alumni Weekend at the ballpark and the afternoon will conclude with postgame autographs. Sunday's series' finale will be Senior Day.

Last Time Out
Utah's recent stretch of nine wins in 11 games has been fueled in large part by their rookie shortstop, Shonty Passi. Over those last 11 contests, no Ute has posted a better average than Passi's .515 clip and seven of her 17 hits have gone for extra bases. That total includes her first collegiate home run, which came against Baylor on April 24. Passi blasted another round-tripper on April 28 to help the Utes top Oregon State and her efforts led to her being named the Pac-12 Freshman of the Week.

Passi's been part of a Utah lineup that's hit .332 during their 9-2 run and she's one of six players who hit better than .300 over that span. One of those players is Kaylah Nelsen, who is also in the midst of a 22-game on-base streak that began on March 20. That, combined with Abby Dayton's 33-game on-base streak earlier in the season, makes Utah the only team in country to have two players with such streaks of over 20 games.

In the circle for the Utes, Mariah Lopez began the month with a 2.80 ERA, but she then went 9-2 with a 1.40 ERA during the month to lower her mark for the season to 2.26. Lopez has been phenomenal at home so far in 2024, crafting a 1.68 figure and she's also completed nine of her 10 starts in her home park. She's also aiming to become Utah's first back-to-back 20-game winner since Generra Nielson in 2011 and 2012.

Scouting the Opposition
The Huskies come to Salt Lake City trying to get out of a funk that's seen them lose three of four for first time all year, but they still find themselves ranked inside the top 10 and in third in the Pac-12 standings. The series with the Utes could serves as a possible preview of a first-round matchup at the conference tournament.

Among the things that have buoyed UW during the 2024 season have been power and patience, as they currently own the conference's best slugging percentage and third-most walks despite playing only 41 games, tied for the fewest in the Pac-12. Washington's Brooke Nelson, Alana Johnson and Rylee Holtorf all own spots in the top 10 in the league in slugging.

Washington's pitching staff can currently claim the league's second-best ERA and they're led by sophomore Ruby Meylan and senior Lindsay Lopez, both of whom have kept their marks under 3.00. Graduate student Brooke Nelson has allowed only nine earned runs in 32 2/3 innings to go with a 5-1 ledger.

2024 Team Stat Leaders (as of 4/30/2024)

Batting Avg.	Abby Dayton	.449
Slugging %	Abby Dayton	.619
On Base %	Abby Dayton	.523
Runs Scored	Haley Denning	45
Hits	Haley Denning	69
RBI	Julia Jimenez	40
Doubles	Kaylah Nelsen	15
Home Runs	Julia Jimenez	5
Stolen Bases	Haley Denning	21
ERA	Mariah Lopez	2.26 (180 IP)

K's	Mariah Lopez	196
Wins	Mariah Lopez	19

National Rankings

Mariah Lopez's 196 strikeouts are seventh-most in the nation and she's tied for 17th in wins. Lopez's 180 innings pitched rank fourth and she's tied for the third-most games started with 28.
Abby Dayton's .449 batting average is seventh-best in the country and she owns the 20th-best on-base percentage. Dayton's six triples are tied for eighth and she's tied for 26th in hits.
Haley Denning's 69 hits put her tied for 17th in Division I and she can claim the nation's 39th-best batting average.
Kaylah's Nelsen's average of one strikeout every 39.2 at-bats makes her the eighth toughest player in the country to strike out and she's tied for 35th in doubles with 15.
As a team, Utah has crafted the nation's 29th-best batting average at .313. The Utes are tied for 19th in double plays turned per game at 0.51, tied for 32nd in triples per game and they rank 46th in strikeout-to-walk ratio.

Pac-12 Rankings

Mariah Lopez has maintained her grasp on the No. 2 spot in Pac-12 in wins, with 19, and strikeouts, at 196. She's also put together the conference's fourth-best ERA at 2.26 and she ranks at the top of the league leaderboard in starts, innings pitched and complete games.
Abby Dayton has remained atop the league rankings in batting average, at .449, on-base percentage, at .523, and triples, with six. She's also in the top 10 in the Pac-12 in hits, walks and total bases.
Haley Denning is currently in a tie for the league lead in runs scored, having reached home 45 times, and ranks second in hits and steals, with 69 and 21 respectively. Her .418 batting average places her fourth.
Aliya Belarde has reached home safely 44 times, tied for third, and her four triples are tied for the Pac-12's second-most. She's also tied for the league's fourth-most sacrifice flies and is tied for ninth in hits and steals.
Kaylah Nelsen's 15 doubles put her second in the conference and are the most by a Ute in a single season since Heather Bowen tallied 18 in 2018. She's also sharing seventh in the league in hits and 10th in RBIs.
Julia Jimenez's 40 RBIs are the conference's fifth-most and she's tied for fifth in walks with 24.
Utah's team statistics include 412 hits, second-most in the Pac-12 and their 14 triples are tied for second, while the squad's 63 steals have them sharing third.

Passi Joins the Player of the Week Club
Shonty Passi earned the Pac-12 Freshman of the Week award on April 29, meaning a Ute has reeled in each of the Pac-12's weekly awards. Aliya Belarde was named the league's player of the week on April 8 and Mariah Lopez took home pitcher of the week honors seven days later. This is the second straight season the Utes have won all three of these awards.

Denning Milestones
Haley Denning has spent the season chasing down one milestone after another, starting on March 3, when she logged the 264th hit of her career, passing Hannah Flippen to become the program's all-time hits leader. On April 21, she achieved two milestones, smacking a first-inning triple to become the first Ute to ever reach 300 hits and two innings later, she crossed home plate for the 198th time in her career, making her the program's all-time leader in runs scored.

Denning still has a chance to break the program's all-time record for career steals, which stands at 130. Denning enters the week with 121 stolen bases.

Abby's Aiming for a Batting Title
Abby Dayton continues to maintain her perch atop the Pac-12's batting average rankings, currently sporting a .449 average. Dayton is attempting to become the first Ute to win the conference batting title since Hannah Flippen, who earned that honor in 2016 and 2017.

20/20
One year after piling up 23 wins, the most by a Utah pitcher since Kristin Arbogast won 28 in 2001, Mariah Lopez is again closing in on the 20-win plateau. Lopez is aiming to become the first Utah pitcher since Generra Nielson in 2011 and 2012 to post back-to-back 20-win campaigns.

Dayton's Dominating at Dumke
Abby Dayton has been nearly impossible for retire at home in 2024, as evidenced by her .533 batting average and .621 on-base percentage. Five of her six triples this season have come at home and she yet to be struck out in Salt Lake City.

First Home Runs
Six players have connected for their first Utah home runs so far in 2024, starting with Leilani Melendez's blast on Feb. 23. Haley Denning smacked her first long ball on Feb. 24 against Wisconsin and Abby Dayton performed that feat a day later in a win over Nebraska. Taylor Jacobs homered for her first career his on Feb. 22 against Arizona and Kaylah Nelsen's four-bagger on April 21 against Idaho State counted for her first since joined the Utes. The most recent player to accomplish this feat was Shonty Passi on April 24 against Baylor

Mariah Joins the 500 strikeout Club
During her start on April 12 against Arizona State, Mariah Lopez collected the 500th strikeout of her career, making her only the fourth Ute to ever reach that total. She joined a group that includes former Utes Ali Sagas, Kristin Arbogast and Katie Donovan.

Coming Back is a Constant
The Utes have made a habit of staging comebacks of late and four of their last six wins have been of the come-from-behind variety. They eliminated a 7-2 deficit to defeat Oregon on March 16, followed by a 3-1 victory over BYU in which Utah trailed after five innings. The Utes then came back in both of their triumphs over California, the latter being Utah's sixth comeback win of 2024.

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.

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.

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