Move over Bonds because Arkansas queen sits on power hitting throne now

During the regular season that just recently concluded, Ellis hit a home run more than 30% faster per at-bat than Bonds. While it took the former Giant 6.52 official appearances at the plate to get one out of the park, Ellis went yard for No. 1 Arkansas every 4.52 appearances.

Of course, the obvious argument is Bonds got fewer opportunities to hit home runs because teams were always trying to walk him. However, it was Ellis who had less plate appearances per walk than Bonds at a full half at-bat sooner.

Her 25 home runs in 49 regular season games means Ellis averages a home run every other game. To put that in perspective, Bonds would have had to hit home runs in 81 games to keep pace, well above his record total 73 bombs in a single season.

Of course, in-season attention and accolades have come her way, but Ellis is far more interested in helping lead Arkansas to its first softball national championship than raking in more individual honors.

At her season pace, Ellis would have blasted 83 home runs, 10 more than Bonds' 2001 record, had she played a 162-game Major League style schedule. She also would have had at least 20 multi-home run games along the way.

"I do not care about the individual awards and I am very grateful people have nice things to say about me," Ellis said back in April. "At the end of the day, I am more focused on where my team is in the rankings, who we are playing, and how we are playing as a team."

The senior infielder only hit 14 home runs each of the previous two seasons split between Arkansas and Auburn despite playing six more games and getting 36 more at-bats with the Razorbacks last season and 13 games and 40 more at-bats as a sophomore at Auburn.

However, it's not like this power came out of nowhere. As a freshman out of Memorial High School in Houston, Ellis had Auburn fans buzzing with her 20 home runs and 49 RBIs.

Perhaps her biggest improvement can be found in her patience at the plate. Prior to this season, Ellis averaged 28 strikeouts per season.

At this point, she has only been sent back to the dugout on pitches 13 times. Her current .487 batting average swells beyond even her on-base percentage of any of her previous three seasons.

Her .322 overall average last season was the best of her career coming into this season and carried a .444 on-base percentage, both of which are dwarfed by her current hitting rate. Ellis' jaw-dropping .659 on-base percentage and 1.221 slugging percentage are the kinds of numbers that woud break a Moneyball algorithm.

For perspective, in 2001 Bonds put up a .515 on-base percentage and slugged at an .863 clip. That was as high as his slugging percentage ever got, while his on-base percentage went as high as .609 in 2004.

That puts Elllis on base .050 more percent of the time than Bonds ever mustered and slugging more than double his best at .612 higher. It's quite an accomplishment for the recent No. 2 draft pick.

She now looks to add to her legend at Arkansas in the postseason. That begins today at 1 p.m. in the SEC Tournament as Arkansas faces Georgia in the second round.