(Tucson, AZ) Saturday afternoon started off as a beautiful sunny 75-degree evening with Arizona getting ready to face #23 Minnesota who came into the match up with a (10-5) record.
After the Wildcats swept Friday’s games versus Drake and Kent State, the Cats would be looking to keep their bats hot and the bottom of the order who racked up nine hits in those two games. Arizona had their ace Taylor McQuillin in the circle with an era of 1.31 coming into Saturday’s match up against the Golden Gophers.
McQuillin uncharacteristically gave up an early double to the Gophers second batter putting them in scoring position. The opportunity would go to waste as McQuillin induced the next batter into a fly-out and struck-out the last batter of the inning to retire the side.
Early in the game the wind would play a factor as the fly-out that was hit by the Gophers third batter Hope Bandner crushed the ball but due to the wind it stayed in the park of an out.
In the bottom of the first inning Arizona was able to make some noise with an early base runner in Reyna Carranco who got on pass from a hit-by-pitch. Like I was saying earlier the wind would play a major factor. Jesse Harper was the Arizona’s next batter and she didn’t take long to cash in with the runner on base as she hit a high fly ball to right field that just kept drifting back to thewall and somehow made it over to put the Wildcats up 2-0 early in the game. The only logical explanation of that ball going over the wall was the gust of wind behind it.
The defense of Arizona shined as bright as the desert sun all game long, and the staple of the defense was Malia Martinez making plays left and right. The key play came in the fifth inning with the Wildcats up 2-0, Minnesota’s Katelyn Kemetmueller lead-off the inning with a triple. After McQuillin struck out the next batter the Gophers had the runner on third with one out, this would be the biggest moment of the game for Martinez as the batter hit a rocket ground ball with the runner from third running on contact, Martinez without missing a beat went home with the ball to prevent the Gophers from getting on the scoreboard.
Offense was an issue for the Cats as they had numerous opportunities to add on to their lead but went 1-6 with runners in scoring position and 4-22 with runners on base. The Golden Gophers pitcher Sydney Smith locked in when she needed to the most to keep the score a 2-0 ball game the whole duration of the game. McQuillin matched her pitch for pitch and then sum, only allowing two hits through seven innings of work.
Arizona would finish the game with a 2-0 victory of Minnesota behind a dominating pitching performance from McQuillin. The final stat like for McQuillin had her racking up ten strikeouts on 103 pitches. McQuillin really stayed in the zone not allowing a walk and 67% of the pitches she threw were for strikes. The win put the Wildcats at (13-5) on the season with another game Saturday against Kent State who the Cats beat 10-0 in Friday nights match-up.
