Coming into Sunday’s finale against the Oregon Ducks, Arizona their minds set on a sweep. This series has been dominated by Arizona in all phases of the game from pitching to hitting.
Arizona’s pitching staff hasn’t allowed a run in the series, giving the Ducks offense no room to get any momentum going. On the others side of the plate for the Cats have racked up sixteen runs on twenty-two hits batting .431 during the first two games.
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Arizona turned to Alyssa Denham to close out the series against a struggling Oregon team looking to find their footing. Through the first two innings Denham was able control the Ducks attack by throwing up zeros on the scoreboard. The pitching staff did their job of silencing the Ducks early, and giving the Arizona’s bats an opportunity.
The Wildcats struck quickly getting an RBI double from Dejah Mulipola bringing in Reyna Carranco from second for an early 1-0 lead. That would be all the cats could muster up in the inning.
After struggling the entire series, Oregon’s offense finally broke through scoring their first runs of the series in the third inning. The Quack attack scored two runs on two hits, all with two outs. Denham gave up walks and the Cats made fielding errors that led Coach Candrea to go to his bullpen early.
Candrea would turn to ace Taylor McQuillin in a bases loaded situation. McQuillin did the job of getting out of the inning with no further damage and stranded three runners on base. Oregon had their first lead of the series at 2-1 after two and a half innings.
The Cats offense wasted no time and answered Oregon’s two run inning with their own two run inning. With the Cats down by one run, Alyssa Palomino-Cardoza lead off the third inning, and went yard to deep right field to get things started for the Cats. Later in the inning Malia Martinez hit a RBI double scoring Carranco from second base to retake the lead 3-2 after three innings.
Arizona would put on a show in the fifth inning scoring five runs in the inning to pull away from Oregon 8-2 late in the game. Although, the highlight of the inning came from Carranco with two hit a grand slam shutting the door on any hopes for a Ducks comeback.
When the Ducks got the two runs in the third inning, McQuillin came in and pitched three straight shutout innings they had little left. Later in the seventh McQuillin gave up the third run on eight hits for the game. The pitching staff as a whole for Arizona allowed two walks in the game that lead to opportunities for the Ducks.
Arizona finished off the Ducks with a PAC-12 opening sweep putting the Cats at (21-7) before they hit the road next weekend. The Wildcats will be in Corvallis for a series with the Oregon State Beavers with a record of (17-7).
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