Oklahoma State dashed Arizona softball’s hopes late in the series opener on Friday night. The Wildcats returned the favor on Saturday evening by scoring in every inning on their way to a 12-4 victory.
No. 11 Arizona came back from an early three-run deficit to defeat the No. 18 Cowgirls in five innings.
The Wildcats’ 12 runs came on 11 hits and six walks off three different pitchers. They also took advantage of two Cowgirl errors and a hit batter.
Arizona used a combination of freshman lefty Ryan Maddox and fifth-year righty Miranda Stoddard to limit OSU to four earned runs on six hits and a walk. All of the offense was generated against Maddox.
Stoddard got the win to improve to 8-0 this season. She threw 2.2 innings without allowing a baserunner.
Maddox started in the circle for Arizona but she ran into early trouble. The Cowgirls manufactured early offense with a hit batter, a stolen base, and a single to get their first run before an out was recorded.
A single, a sacrifice, and a double scored two more for the Cowgirls. OSU had a 3-0 lead before the Wildcats got their first at-bats.
Arizona didn’t wait to cut into the lead. Dakota Kennedy got things going with a leadoff triple. Kaiah Altmeyer drove her in with a double. The Wildcats only got one run in the inning, but it was just the beginning of the momentum they carried throughout the game.
“Dakota from the first at-bat of the game, setting a tone was huge,” said Arizona head coach Caitlin Lowe. “And I thought we were setting the tone throughout the game, which felt really, really good.”
Maddox settled down in the second inning. She went deep into the count on the first two batters, walking one of them, but she didn’t allow OSU to add to the lead.
The bottom of the inning was the start of a hot day at the plate for third baseman Jenna Sniffen. The freshman led off with a single.
“Proud of her today, and mostly because she went in watching two strikeouts in front of her, and she had a different mentality,” Lowe said.
It was the first hit of a 3-for-3 day that included two RBI and a run scored. It was also Sniffen’s first multihit game since Mar. 14 against Utah. She had a seven-game hitless streak following that game, and she is just starting to emerge from it with the help of those around her.
“It’s humbling to be knocked down, but again, just trusting the people around me, trusting that I can learn from 1 through 22,” Sniffen said. “I can ask anybody a question. What I’m feeling and how I’m feeling, and what they see, what I see.”
That run scored when Kennedy came to the plate with two outs. She reached on an error, which allowed Sniffen to score. It was a one-run game after two innings.
That didn’t last for long. Maddox began to falter again.
A one-out solo home run put the Cowgirls back up by two.
Things continued to unravel. Karli Godwin hit a single. Megan Delgadillo had another one. Then, Maddox hit Claire Timm with a pitch. The bases were loaded with one out.
Stoddard entered the circle looking for some redemption. Her ERA had risen from 2.27 to 2.42 in her last four outings. She had one outing where she didn’t record an out, resulting in a recorded game ERA of 99.00. In another, she had a game ERA of 10.50.
It wasn’t going to be easy. She had bases loaded and only one out.
The pairing of Maddox and Stoddard is one that worked well for Arizona early in the season.
“I’m a big fan of the Miranda-Ryan,” pitching coach Christian Conrad said in a February conversation about the Arizona bullpen.
It worked well again. The OSU hitters couldn’t catch up with Stoddard’s dramatically different velo, pitching repertoire, and release point. She struck out the first batter she faced and got a groundout back to her to finish off the inning.
Still, Arizona was behind 4-2 now. There was more work to do.
The Wildcats responded once again, starting with a leadoff walk by Altmeyer. Devyn Netz put two in scoring position with a double. With Stoddard and Sydney Stewart coming up and only one out, it looked like easy scoring opportunities.
Stoddard and Stewart both went down swinging, leaving it to the freshman again.
Sniffen came through with a two-out hit that was originally ruled a triple. It was eventually called a single and an error that allowed the runner to advance, but it didn’t matter on the scoreboard. Two runs scored and the game was tied.
Arizona broke the game open in the fourth. Stoddard sat down the OSU hitters 1-2-3, but there was drama in the inning. Stewart was hit while trying to block a pitch. The game was paused for an extended period while the Arizona staff checked on her, but she stayed in.
“It hurts bad,” Stewart said. “I’m not gonna lie, but I’m gonna go get it checked out. Just blocked the ball and it hit where there was no gear.”
Stewart’s ability to stay in the game made all the difference.
Paige Dimler led off with a pinch-hit walk in the bottom of the fourth. A single, a wild pitch, and another walk loaded the bases with no outs, forcing the Cowgirls to make their second pitching change of the game.
Reliever Kyra Aycock walked in the go-ahead run. She threw a wild pitch to her next batter, allowing Kennedy to come across for an insurance run. Arizona led 6-4 and it wasn’t done yet.
Netz came up with runners on second and third. She hit a grounder to OSU shortstop Megan Bloodworth. She didn’t seem sure what to do with the ball.
Bloodworth hesitated, then decided she needed to look back Shockey at third base. Netz had been motoring down the first baseline the entire time.
By the time Bloodworth thought about going for the out at first, it was too late. Netz had reached on a fielder’s choice without an out being recorded. The bases were loaded again and there were still no outs.
That brought Stewart up. Being hit by the pitch in the top of the inning didn’t affect her power. She sent the 2-2 pitch out for a grand slam, her 11th home run of the season. It put the Wildcats up 10-4.
It tied Stoddard for second on the t.eam, but it was the last play Stewart made in the game. Emily Schepp came in to catch in the top of the fifth. She and Stoddard worked together to keep their team within two runs of the mercy rule with a 1-2-3 inning in the top of the fifth.
The Wildcats got those two runs on base via a walk and a single. Schepp drove one run in with a single of her own. Stoddard walked it off with another single.
The teams will play the rubber game on Sunday at noon MST.
Lead photo courtesy of Arizona Athletics