Utah softball’s rise continues. On Thursday, infielder Hannah Flippen became the Utes’ first Pac-12 Player of the Year.
Flippen, a junior from Bonita, California, finished the regular season ranked among the conference leaders in numerous categories. She was second in batting average (.431), on-base percentage (.528) and stolen bases (13); fourth in sacrifice bunts (9); fifth in slugging percentage (.771), total bases (111) and walks (30); sixth in runs scored (48) and home runs (13); and eighth in hits (62).
“What’s fun about her is she is all about this team and this atmosphere and doesn’t want the big hype and glory of being the superstar of our team,” said Utah coach Amy Hogue, who explained that the Utes are all about winning as a group. “She has gotten better every minute since she’s gotten here. She was highly recruited but at the end of the day that’s a kid that gives in every area of the game.”
Hogue noted that Flippen was elected to be the team captain and is well-liked, a hard worker and can play every bit of the game.
Flippen considers it a “blessing to have this experience.” She said the Utah campus is awesome and appreciates learning to be on her own a bit. As for her impact as a player, Flippen wanted to make a change in a program and be an impact player.
Mission accomplished.
Flippen’s production has helped Utah improve its Pac-12 record for the fourth consecutive season and earn a second straight NCAA regional berth. The Utes (32-19, 13-10) take on Illinois in Lexington, Kentucky, Friday (9 a.m. MDT, ESPN3). Kentucky and Butler are the other teams in the regional that continues Saturday and concludes Sunday.
“I’m so happy that we get to experience it again and hopefully win some games out there,” Flippen said.
Utah reached the regional finals last season, falling to Tennessee for a spot in the super regionals. This year, the Utes are determined to advance.
“We’re not OK with just getting there this time. We’re too experienced and we’re too talented with just getting in,” Hogue said. “This is a team that expected to get in. They trained to get farther than the first round. I think they believe that we’re a super regional team at worst this year.
“We like the matchups. We think that we can go and shut a lot of these teams out and give our hitters a chance to win ballgames,” she continued. “So it’s a pretty exciting time to be a Ute.”
Hogue, in her ninth season at the helm, has big aspirations for the program. Postseason play is now an expectation every year.
“I’m not going to stop being the coach here until we get back to where I left as a senior, which was at the College World Series,” said the 1994 All-American for the Utes.
Since joining the Pac-12 in 2012, Utah has improved its record in one of the nation’s premier conferences each year since going 2-22 the first time around. The Utes have since gone 7-17, 8-15, 12-11 and 13-10.
“I think coming into the Pac-12 we all kind of had a chip on our shoulders — like we want to beat everybody so badly,” Flippen said. “We feel like everybody thinks of us as the underdogs and that’s not us any more. That used to be us but now we’re one of the top teams in the Pac-12.”
Utah is one of eight teams in the conference advancing to regionals. Especially impressive considering the league has nine schools playing softball.
Hogue’s experience as a player — reaching the College World Series with the Utes — fueled her belief that the program could compete at a high level even in a powerhouse conference like the Pac-12.
“It was easy for me to believe for real because of the fact that we’ve been all the way to the end with little or nothing. We didn’t even have a home field and we made it to the final eight,” Hogue said. “So being to the World Series as a player twice in a red uniform made me believe we could do anything. I knew it would be a lot of work. I knew it would take a long time and I knew it would take a big investment. But I got them somehow to believe what I believed and off we went.”
Hogue acknowledged that the commitment on the part of the university has been big. The Utes have a $4.3 million complex to call home. They moved into it in 2013.
It’s part of the big picture that has accompanied Utah’s rise to prominence.
“The climb had everything to do with just working no matter what the results were. So this team found a way to get better whether we won or lost and we lost most of the time,” Hogue said. “But at the end of each game I felt like we were improving and I knew over time that if we kept doing that — getting better even in the losses — that they would start turning some of those into wins and we’re turning some of those into wins and we’re turning more of them into wins now than losses in the Pac-12.”
Continual improvement, she continued, will keep the numbers going up.
Flippen referred to it as the “Utah bubble.” She explained that if the Utes stay within themselves and not react to any outside factors like fans and umpires that everything will work out.
“If we stay in our ‘Utah bubble’ then I think we’ll do fine and make it to super regionals,” Flippen said.
The Utes have won 29 of their past 41 games and received votes in the ESPN.com and USA Today top 25 polls. They’re batting .307 as a team and wound up second in the Pac-12 with 33 doubles.
Pitching and defense have been a strength. Utah allowed a conference-low 24 homers and 166 runs, the second-fewest in the league. The Utes’ earned run average of 2.83 ranks third in the Pac-12.
“I think we could shut out everybody in the country,” Hogue said.
Sophomore Katie Donovan headlines a deep pitching staff. The first-team All-Pac-12 honoree has 18 wins this season with a 2.46 ERA.
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