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Utah softball head coach Amy Hogue was honored as the Pac-12's best Wednesday after a breakthrough season in which her Utes finished fourth and earned a handful of individual awards.

Utah has improved each year in the Pac-12 — an easy feat the second year, after going 2-22, but trickier as Utah began to verge on the conference's upper echelon.

This year, Utah won five consecutive conference series before splitting the finale against Washington. Four of those six opponents were ranked.

Hogue said before the start of Pac-12 play that this year's team had the potential to be the best in school history, and she has backed it up, so far, by securing the school's first postseason berth since 2006.

Two players central to that effort were named to the conference's first team Wednesday.

Senior captain Kate Dickman set a school record with 20 doubles, finished tied for second in the Pac-12 with a .448 average and won Hogue's praise for improved defense in center field. Freshman Katie Donovan was a steady presence on the mound for the Utes, finishing 16-8 with a 2.58 ERA and showing a zest for pressure situations.

Sophomore second baseman Hannah Flippen was named to the second team, despite posting similar numbers to her first-team freshman campaign. Flippen hit .373 with seven home runs and anchored the nation's second-most prolific double-play defense with fellow sophomores Anissa Urtez and Bridget Castro.

Donovan, naturally, also made the all-freshman team, as did fellow pitcher Miranda Viramontes, who posted an 11-6 record with a 3.06 ERA.

Flippen and junior catcher Shelby Pacheco were all-defensive standouts. Pacheco was tops in the conference in throwing out would-be base-stealers, with 15.

All-Pac-12 honorable mentions include freshman Heather Bowen, junior Kristen Stewart and Viramontes. Bowen also earned an all-freshmen honorable mention, and Dickman, Stewart and Urtez were honorable mention all-defensive.

Fittingly, the two conference players who gave Utah the most trouble were its player of the year, UCLA's Ally Carda, and its pitcher of the year, Oregon's Cheridan Hawkins, who spearheaded consecutive Ute sweeps for their respective teams at the start of Pac-12 play.

Utah's honorees were en route to Knoxville for regional play at the time of this announcement, and thus unavailable for comment.

Twitter: @matthew_piper —

Utah's Pac-12 honors

Coach of the Year • Amy Hogue

First team • Kate Dickman, Katie Donovan

Second team • Hannah Flippen

All-freshmen team • Katie Donovan, Miranda Viramontes

All-defensive team • Hannah Flippen, Shelby Pacheco

Honorable mention • Heather Bowen, Kristen Stewart, Miranda Viramontes

All-freshmen honorable mention • Heather Bowen

All-defensive honorable mention • Kristen Stewart, Anissa Urtez