University of Arizona Athletics

TUCSON, Ariz. -- Arizona softball and head coach Mike Candrea announced UA's 2018 schedule on Thursday, as released by the Pac-12.

The Wildcats will play 56 games in 2018, including 31 at Hillenbrand Stadium. Twenty of UA's 56 games will be televised by the Pac-12 Network, tied for the most in the conference.

Arizona's schedule features 37 games against NCAA Tournament teams from a season ago. The Wildcats will play four of the eight participants in the 2017 Women's College World Series, including defending national champion Oklahoma on Feb. 24 in the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic.

UA will host a pair of nonconference tournaments prior to the start of conference play. The second week of the season, Feb. 15-18, Arizona will welcome in Colorado State, Troy, Bryant, Louisiana-Monroe and Montana for the Hillenbrand Invitational. The final week of nonconference play, week 5, UA will host the Wildcat Invitational, March 8-11, featuring South Dakota, Wisconsin, San Diego and USC Upstate.

The Cats will be on the road for the other three weeks of nonconference play. Arizona will return to the Kajikawa Classic in Tempe, Arizona for the first time since 2013. UA, which competed in the Kajikawa Classic every year from 1990-2013 as well as 1985 and 1988, will face Northwestern, Oklahoma State, UC Davis, Fresno State and New Mexico in the three-day, two-location tournament in Tempe, Feb. 9-11. Arizona's games against Northwestern and Oklahoma State on day 1 will be televised by the Pac-12 Network.

Following the Hillenbrand Invitational, UA will head to Cathedral City, California for the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic (Feb. 22-24), a tournament Arizona has played in every year since 2010 as well as 2004, 2006 and 2008. North Carolina, Missouri, St. John's, Cal State Northridge and Oklahoma await UA in the three-day tournament.

In the final road nonconference affairs of 2018, Arizona will take on Texas in a three-game series in Austin (March 2-4), a return trip for the Longhorns' visit to Hillenbrand last year.

Up next, the Wildcats will have 10 consecutive games at home, beginning with the six-game Wildcat Classic (March 8-10). Arizona will host reigning Big Ten champion Minnesota in a midweek contest on March 14 in the final nonconference tune up before Utah, a 2017 Super Regional team, comes to town to kick off Pac-12 play. The Cats will host the Utes March 16-18 on the Pac-12 Networks.

After two weeks at home, the Cats head to Seattle to meet 2017 WCWS-participant Washington for a three-game series, March 23-25. All three games will be carried on the Pac-12 Networks.

UA will then return home to face California in a Thursday-Saturday series at Hillenbrand Stadium (March 29-31).

Up next, the Cats will return to the Pacific Northwest to take on another WCWS team from a season ago, Oregon, in Eugene, April 6-8. The matchup will be televised by the Pac-12 Networks.

After UA's second trip to the Pacific Northwest in three weeks, the Cats will not leave the state of Arizona for the next 15 games. Up first, Arizona welcomes UCLA (April 13-15) for  a three-game series televised by the Pac-12 Networks. Arizona welcomes New Mexico State for a midweek doubleheader on Wednesday, April 18.

April 20-22, Arizona will head back to Tempe for a three-game series with Arizona State in a series carried by Pac-12 Arizona.

The Wildcats will then take on New Mexico in a midweek meeting on Wednesday, April 25.

Oregon State will come to town April 27-29 for a three-game series.

During Arizona's conference bye week, the Wildcats will face Grand Canyon in a three-game series May 5-6 at Hillenbrand Stadium.

UA wraps up the 2018 regular season in Palo Alto, where the Cats will face Stanford Thursday, May 10-Saturday, May 12. All three games will be televised by the Pac-12 Networks.