With the season's opening games less than two weeks away, it's time to take a quick tour -- two by two this year -- through some of the best teams out there.

No. 11 Northwestern

A lot of teams know their fate this season ultimately hinges on what kind of pitching they get. Not many of those have an offense like Northwestern.

There were 15 teams that slugged .500 or better last season. Of that group, eight reached at least a super regional. Another, Massachusetts, pushed Washington to the brink of elimination in an epic regional. (The Huskies, as it turned out, busted a few trends; they were the only team in last year's World Series that didn't rank in the top 16 in the nation in slugging percentage).

The team with the best slugging percentage that didn't reach the World Series? That would be Northwestern, which bowed out in regionals against Texas State and Baylor despite trailing only Arizona, Georgia, UCLA and Florida in slugging.

Proving that while many of the kids on the Northwestern roster could probably handle either, softball is not rocket science. Score a lot of runs, and you likely win a lot of games.

The Wildcats have been a good offensive team for a number of years under coach Kate Drohan and associate coach, and hitting guru par excellence, Caryl Drohan. But last season's production was off the charts even by their standards. And despite losing All-American shortstop Tammy Williams, this season may not offer much in the way of regression.

Coming off a freshman season in which she was one of only three players in the nation to slug at least .900, Adrienne Monka can anchor any batting order, with or without Williams. And while freshman pitchers are all the rage across the country, adding freshmen with resumes like those of Emily Allard and Kristin Scharkey to the lineup options in Evanston should replace what was lost.

All of which means the Wildcats don't need ace Lauren Delaney to be great, even if the hard-throwing senior has that kind of talent. They just need Delaney, whose control vanished while shouldering almost all the innings last season, to make batters earn their own way on base.

No. 12 Arizona State

As noted yesterday in talking about No. 13 Georgia, no team in the last six seasons reached a World Series with as inflated a team ERA as Arizona State (3.29 ERA) last season. And while in-state rival Arizona, which also made the trip to Oklahoma City despite pitching concerns a year ago, has freshman Kenzie Fowler to hand the ball to this season, Arizona State still has a season to go until star-in-waiting Dallas Esbobedo takes to the circle in Tempe.

And then there's the matter of replacing Katie Cochran, one of the most prolific college hitters in a generation. So there's no pressure on sophomore pitcher Hillary Bach or anything. Yeah, right.

But if last May and June were any indication, dealing with pressure may be Bach's strength.

Not necessarily expected to carry quite as hefty a load in the circle as she did, the freshman struggled in conference play, allowing 27 home runs and 13 doubles in 16 appearances (95.2 innings). That was 13 extra-base hits more than any other pitcher allowed in Pac-10 play, worrisome even weighing that Bach threw the third-most innings in conference games.

Yet far from looking rattled or exhausted in the postseason, she allowed just 12 extra-base hits in 61.2 innings in the NCAA tournament, including a pair of memorable starts in Oklahoma City against Missouri (a 7-3 win) and Washington (a 1-0 loss). She was not a strikeout pitcher, and despite throwing with good velocity, she may never be a strikeout-per-inning type of pitcher.

With a roster big enough to fill out a intrasquad round-robin tournament, let alone a two-team scrimmage, the Sun Devils have options as they look to replace Cochran and others in the lineup. But while Megan Elliott may still have a chance to realize her potential and freshman Sam Parlich could see some innings, Bach gets her chance to be an ace and not a placeholder.

Graham Hays covers softball for ESPN.com. E-mail him at Graham.Hays@espn3.com.