(Tucson, AZ) With conference play starting this weekend, Arizona sits with a record of (18-7) and ranked twelfth in the nation looking to jump into the top ten.
The Wildcats will with the Oregon Ducks who come into the series with a record of (11-10) losing six of their last seven games. The question coming into this series is, can the Cats keep up the intensity that they displayed in the Florida State series.
The Cats would have ace Taylor McQuillin in the circle looking to get back on track after a rough outing against FSU. After giving up a hit in the first inning McQuillin would lock in striking out five batters through two innings of work and sat down the side in order in the second inning.
The offense early in the game continued to remain constant scoring four runs through four innings of play. Up to that point Arizona’s offense didn’t have that one big inning but put pressure on the Ducks pitching staff all game long.
Dejah Mulipola would hit her eight homer of the season in the second inning to get things rolling for the Cats.
Later the Wildcats got homers from Alyssa Palomino-Cardoza and Rylee Pierce to giving Arizona the 4-0 lead.
After giving up that first inning hit McQuillin would shut the door on the Oregon offense by not allowing a hit the next four innings. McQuillin did a great job mixing up her pitches and keeping the Ducks off balanced. Some of that could be a senior pitcher in McQuillin taking advantage of Oregon’s young lineup who have five freshman getting their first taste of conference games and PAC-12 pitching.
Finally, after taking on a run here and there the Zona offense would explode in the sixth inning by putting up a crooked number of four runs in the inning to run-rule the Ducks in six innings. The highlight of the inning came from Palomino-Cardoza who would hit her second homerun of the night, this time it was a three-run shot that landed on top of Gittens Gym sending the crowd into a frenzy of excitement.
Malia Martinez would put the finale nail in the coffin hitting the game winning hit right back up the middle scoring Jesse harper from second to give Arizona the 8-0 victory of the struggling Ducks.
This wasn’t the Ducks that Arizona has become accustomed to seeing over the past few years, but never the less it was an all-around great team performance from the Cats. The one major flaw to the Cats game tonight was baserunning which lead to Arizona not ending the game sooner then what they did.
The Wildcats will be back in action Saturday at 2 p.m. as they get set for the second game in this three–game series. It will be interesting to see who Coach Candrea starts in game two with the emergence of Gina Snyder giving the Cats three effective starts that they can mix around.
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