Utah softball has surged to its best start since joining the Pac-12, winning its first two Conference series for the first time in program history.

At 5-1, the Utes sit all alone in first place despite being picked eighth in the preseason coaches poll. The nation is starting to take notice as Utah is ranked by every major outlet for the first time since February 2018.

Their success might be a surprise to some, but not to head coach Amy Hogue, who said the Utes have the "perfect storm" of youth and experience.

Fifth-year slugger Ellessa Bonstrom and speedster Haley Denning have long been among the top position players in the Pac-12, while Sophie Jacquez, Aliya Belardi, Julia Jimenez are all hitting above .380. Upperclassmen Sydney Sandez and Mariah Lopez have been steady, if not dominant, in the circle.

Add the arrival of newcomers like Karlie Davison and Abby Dayton, the reigning Pac-12 Freshman of the Week, and the Utes believe they have the depth to not just contend for a Pac-12 title, but to reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2017 — and make a deep run while they're at it.

As Hogue put it, "it's Women's College World Series or bust for this group."

"It's some new energy with the freshmen coming in that actually created some competition within our team that we were missing," Hogue said.

The Utes barely missed the NCAA Tournament field last season, finishing among the last four teams out of the bracket. They felt they deserved a bid and they have been hungry to prove it ever since.

In the fall, the Utes adopted a new offseason workout program called the 1176 Challenge. That number — 1,176 — is the distance in miles from Utah's Dumke Family Softball Stadium to Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City, the site of the WCWS.

The idea came from assistant coaches DJ Gasso and Paige Parker, who were part of a similar regimen at Oklahoma, which has won four of the last six national championships.

The way Bonstrom described them, the workouts were grueling but “showed the players we can push ourselves to a higher level, a newer level that we weren't doing in the past."

"We started on our turf field," Bonstrom said, "and we would do exercises across the field. And then once we got to one spot, we would do a core exercise, run back. It was a lot of back and forth. Then we ran to our weight room, did a weight room exercise circuit, ran back to the turf field, ran three laps on the track, and then our last lap we had to hold a 10-pound [medicine] ball and run with that across the track. Then we ran back to our softball field and the time was done once we touched home plate."

Bonstrom has been a beacon of consistency for the Utes over the years, but has elevated her game this season, currently sporting a career-best .386 batting average with a team-high eight homers and 33 RBI. The star first baseman has been voted the Pac-12 Player of the Week two straight weeks, the first Ute to win the award twice in the same season since U.S. Olympian Hannah Flippen in 2015.

Last week, Bonstrom carried Utah to a big series win in her hometown of Tucson, homering twice and driving in five runs against then-No. 17 Arizona. The Utes somehow erased two six-run deficits to win the rubber match on Sunday. Bonstrom's two-run blast in the seventh inning was the deciding blow.

She insists those rallies wouldn't have happened without the 1176 Challenge.

"We had no doubt in us as a team that we could come back from that," Bonstrom said. "It's very cool to see that something that we did in the fall can translate all the way to the season."

It was a moment Bonstrom will always remember and another reason she is glad she returned for a fifth season. She strongly considered forgoing her final year of eligibility. She has already earned her undergraduate degree in Information Systems, and the rigors of the 2022 season took a toll on her physically and mentally.

"It's exhausting what we do," Hogue said. "And to have that heartbreak at the end, I was really obviously glad she chose to come back because I knew that from the experience I've had in this job, if you're given the choice to come back, and you don't, there's a whole lot more regrets on that end than the other end."

Ultimately, Bonstrom decided she had unfinished business to settle.

"I wanted to be a part of a postseason team and so I stuck with this team, and I'm so happy that I did," she said.

"Ending my career at the World Series is something that I couldn't have dreamed of and I can't wait for that moment. That's the end goal for every softball player."

Hogue capped her college career that way in 1994. After leading Utah to the WCWS, she unlaced her cleats, placed them on home plate and walked out of Hall of Fame Stadium, leaving the program in a better place than she found it.

Why can’t the 2023 Utes write a similar story?

"As we saw last year with some of the teams that were in the World Series from our conference, we just need a chance to get in that bracket," Hogue said. "Our entire conference has a chance and I believe that. Just get us in and we can win the whole thing."