Cal Softball Is Ranked Nationally This Week

Bears have won eight in a row and are ranked in three of four national top-25 polls

Cal's softball team entered the top 25 rankings on Monday after an impressive weekend of games.

The Bears (10-1) won five games over three days in the at the Littlewood Classic in Phoenix, and have won eight games in a row.  Cal has already defeated two teams that were ranked at the time -- Louisiana and Virginia Tech.

The Bears are ranked No. 21 in the Softball America top-25 released Monday and No, 21 in the USA Today/NFCA poll released Tuesday.  Cal is No. 22 in this week's D1 Softball rankings, and the Bears barely missed being ranked in the ESPN.com/USA Softball top-25 poll, coming in 26th, just seven voting points behind 25th-ranked Oregon.

Cal was not ranked in any poll a week ago.

Other Pac-12 teams ranked in one or more polls include Washington, Stanford, Arizona, UCLA and Oregon.  Washington is the highest ranked Pac-12 team, at No. 4 in all three polls.

Elon Butler and Acasia Anders are both batting .500 for the young season. Butler has four home runs and 11 RBIs, while Anders has two homers and 14 runs batted in. Mika Lee has hit three home runs and driven in 10.

Butler was named Pac-12 player of the week. She hit .600 (9-for-15) in Cal's five victories, collecting two home runs and two doubles to go with seven RBIs.

Butler and Anders are tied for second in the Pac-12 in batting average, Butler is tied for the conference lead in home runs, and Anders tied for first in RBIs. Cal is tied for the Pac-12 lead in home runs with 15.

The Bears' top pitcher so far is Anna Reimers, who is 2-0 with a 1.17 ERA in five games, including four starts. Six Cal pitcher have at least one win.

Cover photo by Cal Athletics

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