(Tucson,AZ) In the first two games of this three-game series Arizona has out scored the Cardinal sixteen to one, including a 9-1 run-rule Friday night. Thus far in the series Dejah Mulipola has been nothing short of spectacular crushing the ball all over the field going four for six with three home runs and eight RBIs.
Arizona started ace Taylor McQuillin in the circle who started the first game against Stanford in the 7-0 victory. McQuillin went right at hitters forcing weak contact making for easy fly-outs to the Arizona outfield. The only bump in the road for McQuillin was a walk in the top of the second to lead-off the inning.
It wasn’t until the second inning where Arizona go some offense going with a one out single from Hillary Edior right back up the middle. Two batters later with one out Malia Martinez step-up to the plate with Edior at second, on an even count Martinez hit a ground ball right back up the middle. Unlike Edior’s hit this ball didn’t reach the out fields thanks to a diving stop from Stanford’s second baseman Emily Klingaman. Unfortunately, the stop was to no prevail as Coach Candrea sent Edior home from second and she was able to just make it right before the tag was made giving the Cats the 1-0 lead.
Right after taking the lead McQuillin did what an ace does and that’s go right back out there and pitch scoreless frame keeping the momentum in the Arizona dugout. The Cardinal couldn’t even come up with a hit going one-two-three in the frame.
The highlight of the for Arizona came with an offensive outburst in the third inning scoring twelve runs. It took forty-five minutes for the Cardinal to get out of the nightmare of an inning which featured a pitching change in the middle of the chaos.
The inning was kick started from an Alyssa Palomino-Cardoza homering on a 1-1 count to center field with just enough to clear the wall making it 2-0 Zona. Later, after Arizona loaded up the bases with no outs, Martinez busted the game wide open lining a double in right center field scoring two more runs extending the lead to 4-0. Edior was hit by a pitch and a Rylee Pierce walked to force in a run. Hannah “Peanut” Martinez joined the run parade with a sacrifice fly in left field scoring Martinez from third and it was now a 6-0 Wildcat lead.
The Wildcats scored three more runs making it 8-0 after three innings. The entire order batted around in the inning give two at-bats to a few Arizona hitters. Martinez in her second plate appearance came up with the bases juiced and delivered the knock-out punch sending a screaming line drive over the left field wall for a grand slam. With a 13-0 lead the U of A had a run-rule victory in sight.
Stanford eventually got to McQuillin in the fourth inning from a RBI triple by Kristina Inouye scoring Klingaman from first.
The ball wasn’t hit hard but was misplayed by Jenna Kean who got an in-between hop off the grass. With the score being 13-1 it seemed like the run was an afterthought for the Cardinal.
In the top of the fifth inning, Candrea put Gina Snyder finish Stanford off with the sweep. Stanford didn’t give up, the Cardinal got a home run to left field from a Emily Young that barely cleared the wall. Stanford got two runners aboard with one out for the first time. That hope didn’t last long as Reyna Carranco made a game ending unassisted double play with the final score 13-2.
The sweep puts Arizona at 38-7 on the season and (15-0) in the PAC-12 sweeping five conference opponents along the way. This also puts the Cats at an impressive twenty game winning streak. In case you are wondering the longest winning streak in U of A Softball history is forty-seven games.
Arizona has California on the road next weekend looking to remain on top of the PAC-12 standings. There is just one more home-stand left against #3 Washington to wrap-up the home schedule.
