Arizona softball released its 2013 schedule, which will pit the Wildcats against five of the top six teams in the final 2012 ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25, including No. 2 Oklahoma, No. 3 California, No. 4 Arizona State, No. 5 Oregon and No. 6 LSU.

Arizona will also play six more of last year’s top 25 teams such as Florida, Michigan, Texas, Washington, UCLA and Stanford.

“The whole thing is set up to prepare ourselves for Pac-12 play, and the Pac-12 [is] going to be very strong top to bottom like it always is,” head coach Mike Candrea said.

The UA has dates with 18 of the 64 teams from last year’s NCAA tournament, including half of the Super Regionals field and half of the Women’s College World Series field. One of the WCWS teams Arizona plays is Oklahoma, which knocked the Wildcats out in the Super Regionals the last two years.

The Wildcats open the season at ASU’s Kajikawa Classic in Tempe, Ariz., for the seventh year in a row, where they will face Northwestern, Bradley, Cal Poly, San Diego State and Florida.

Arizona will host 27 home games, including two tournaments. In the Hillenbrand Invitational on Feb. 15-17, Drake, Nebraska, Southern Utah and Utah State will come to town.March 1-3, UC Riverside, Portland State and Boston will come to Hillenbrand Stadium for the Wildcat Invitational.

The Wildcats play in the Cathedral City Classic for the fourth year in a row and seventh overall. Arizona will play Oklahoma, Long Beach State, Ohio State, Loyola Marymount and LSU there.

Then Arizona travels to Fullerton, Calif. for the Judi Garman Classic, where it will play Virginia Tech, Notre Dame, Penn State, Michigan and Texas.

The Wildcats host Boise State and UC Santa Barbara in non-conference series and travel to New Mexico State for a doubleheader.

In Pac-12 play, Arizona travels to Utah, Oregon, Oregon State and Stanford and hosts Washington, Cal, UCLA and ASU.