(Tucson, AZ) Bill McCulloch
On a quick turnaround from a Saturday night game, the Cats came into Hillenbrand Stadium with confidence and a little lack of sleep.
Utah took advantage by jumping on the Wildcats in their first at bats with a string of three consecutive singles to lead 1-0 before the first Arizona player had swung at a pitch.
Taylor McQuillin was in the circle after a brief stint last night resulting in a save of Alyssa Denham starting effort.
The Cats went down quickly after a one out double by Jesse Harper, but seemed a bit lethargic at the plate on the pitches they chose to swing through.
McQuillin seemed to settle down by striking out the side in the top of the second inning with a lone double squeezed in between.
The Cats tried to wake up in the bottom half of the inning with Malia Martinez leading off with a single to right field. Aleah Creighton followed with a walk. Joelle Krist starting today as the designated player layed down a sacrifice bunt moving both runners into scoring position. Carli Campbell and Ashleigh Hughes both hit ground ball outs to close out the threat.
The Utes wanting to get a bit of respect out of this series came alive again in the top of the third inning when Alyssa Barrera was hit by a McQuillin fastball and the lead off runner was aboard. After a couple of fly ball outs to center field, Kelly Martinez was safe on an error by Reyna Carranco, her third of the series. Alyssa Palacios followed with a double to right center field scoring both Barrera and Martinez and for the second consecutive game the Wildcats were in a hole 3-0.
Arizona went down in order in the third and seemed to still be pressing at the plate.
McQuillin seemed to have found her groove sandwiching a strike out around two ground outs to Haper.
Getting the Utes out in order for the first time in the game caused Zona’s bats to get back on track and the flood gates finally opened.
Three singles (Mulipola, Krist and Campbell) followed by RBI doubles by Palomino and Martinez, and capped off with a two run homer by Harper, scored seven runs and the Cats went from three runs down to four up 7-3.
Coach Mike Candrea said in a post game press conference that he was very pleased to see his young team have the resiliency to come back two games in a row.
To put the game out of reach in the bottom of the sixth inning, Carranco lifted a double to the left field gap followed by infield single by Harper keeping the runner at second. Up came catcher Dejah Mulipola who homered last night and still in her groove smacked a hard liner over the wall for a three run dinger. Cats up 10-3.
Utah would not mount anther serious threat and the Wildcat defense turned a 6-4-3 double play in the seventh and a grounder to first base to end the game and the series.
The coaching staff, especially Candrea and pitching coach Taryne Mowatt were excited to get this young team off on the right foot by sweeping the Utes out of town and knowing in the back of their minds top ranked Washington would be the next test in Seattle.
Up north, the Sun Devils beat the Huskies on St. Patrick’s Day to take off the invincibility factor Washington had going into conference play.
Arizona leads the nation in home runs per game and will need their bats hot against the Dawgs next weekend. Conference play has begun, hang on for the ride!
