Washington softball slides three spots in USA Softball poll

After losing six straight games, all against ranked opponents, it shouldn't come as a surprise that the Washington Huskies took another slide in the Week 12 edition of the USA Softball poll, falling three spots to No. 25.

While the Huskies appear to have a spot secured in the rankings for the foreseeable future, with a 27-point gap between them and the top team in the "others receiving votes" category, Saint Mary's (37-10), coach Heather Tarr's team's hopes of hosting an NCAA Regional are fading fast.

Barring a deep run in the Big Ten Tournament, which would most likely have to include an upset win or two over one of the three teams ahead of them in the conference: No. 2 Nebraska, No. 6 UCLA, and No. 15 Oregon, the Huskies appear destined to hit the road for the third straight year in the postseason. However, Tarr's young team, which celebrated just one graduate on Senior Day, pitcher Sophia Ramuno, has all the talent and upside necessary to compete with some of the nation's top teams.

At the plate, the Huskies have enjoyed strong years from sophomore Alexis DeBoer and freshman Kaycie Burdick, but a breakout season from junior Giselle Alvarez has added strong depth to Washington's lineup. While playing strong defense at third base, she has posted a .378 batting average and 14 home runs, which rank No. 2 on the team, while her 62 hits and 51 runs batted in both lead the squad, and her 1.117 OPS sits at No. 3.

In the circle, despite some recent struggles against some of the nation's best lineups, Tarr still has one of the country's top pitchers to lean on in Morgan Reimer. The Canadian-born sophomore ranks No. 3 in the Big Ten with 22 wins, while her 2.56 ERA and 118 strikeouts rank No. 5 and No. 9 in the conference, respectively.

Sitting at 34-15 on the year and 15-6 in conference play, Washington will close out the regular season with a three-game series at Ohio State, which will begin on Friday, May 1, at 3:00 p.m. PT.

This article originally appeared on Huskies Wire: Washington Huskies slide three spots in Week 12 USA Softball poll