There will be live stats for this week’s games, but no live streams. Admission to all of the tournament games is free.

Returning 17 players from last year’s roster and welcoming eight newcomers in the form of four transfers and four freshmen, BYU looks to begin its inaugural season as members of the Big 12 Conference strong.

The Cougars finished second in their final year in the West Coast Conference last season, going 35-17 overall and 11-4 in league. Despite not making it to the NCAA Tournament, BYU advanced to the championship game of the National Invitational Softball Championship (NISC) before falling to Iowa, 9-7.

BYU returns last year’s WCC Player of the Year (first baseman Huntyr Ava,) WCC Defensive Player of the Year (shortstop/right-handed pitcher Ailana Agbayani) and WCC Freshman of the Year (catcher Hailey Morrow), as well as five others .

Also returning for the Cougars are five players who were named to All-WCC teams as well a season ago: righty Kaysen Korth, center fielder Violet Zavodnik, left fielder Maddie Bejarano, lefty Chloe Temples and infielder Tristen Turlington.

Agbayani, Ava, Korth, Morrow and Turlington combined for seven WCC Player of the Week awards in 2023. The awards continued for Ava and Agbayani, with the pair being named to the NFCA’s All-Pacific Region Third Team as well.

Ranked seventh out of ten teams in the Big 12 preseason poll, Ava represented BYU as the lone Cougar on the league’s preseason all-conference team.

Three-time defending national champion Oklahoma was selected to win the Big 12 by the league’s coaches, garnering nine of the 10 first-place votes. It’s the 12th season in a row the Sooners have been picked to win the Big 12. Texas was second with the other first-place vote, followed by Oklahoma State, Baylor and UCF, with BYU seventh, Kansas eighth, Iowa State ninth and Houston tenth.

BYU had five players represented in the final national statistical rankings last season. Bejarano led the way at No. 11 in sacrifice bunts per game (0.27), with Ava in 12th for home runs per game (0.35) and RBI per game (1.09). Morrow ranked 21st, catching 14 runners stealing, while Korth was No. 36 in strikeouts (189) and No. 37 in victories (19). Temples finished No. 66 in strikeouts per seven innings, averaging 7.7.

Following the Cougars’ five-game slate in Hawaii, they will then visit Arizona State in Tempe for the Sun Devils’ Littlewood Classic.

BYU will play its first 19 games on the road before returning to Provo to open Big 12 play with a three-game set against Texas Tech beginning March 7.