It was an exciting second day of the Hillenbrand Invitational. It started with No. 18 Stanford defeating No. 1 Texas on a neutral field in the afternoon and ended with two lopsided victories for the hometown team in the evening.
The No. 13 Arizona Wildcats (14-1) defeated UC Davis 7-0 in their first game. They followed up with a 10-0 defeat of Colorado State in five innings.
Arizona got strong pitching performances from Aissa Silva and Saya Swain, neither of whom have started much this season. Silva was making just her second start of her junior year. Swain was making the first of her fifth year and just the second since her junior season at Iowa State.
Silva faced just three batters in the second and fourth innings. She faced four in the first, third, and fifth. She had two baserunners in the fifth and sixth innings. A double play ended the danger in the fifth. She got a strike out and a grounder to end it in the sixth.
It was Silva’s longest outing of the season. She said that she likes that the pitchers don’t have to throw as many innings this year, but there are also advantages to going longer early in the season.
“I felt good, definitely to get the endurance up just a little bit,” Silva said.
Arizona was very opportunistic on offense in both games. The extra-base hits started to come in the second game, but that wasn’t the case in the opener. They were able to manufacture runs anyway.
“Finding ways,” Arizona head coach Caitlin Lowe said. “Finding ways to score, finding ways to win. I thought we had a lot of people with great days today. A lot of people letting the game come to them and just chipping away. I mean, any way we can. I think our speed helps us when we’re aggressive and we get passed balls, but those are two good teams, and we’re going to get everybody’s A game. So it was good to just see them figure out a way to score.”
The Wildcats didn’t hit the cover off the ball, but they took advantage of the free bases and extra outs provided by UC Davis pitching. Only one of their eight hits went for extra bases.
That lone extra-base hit came in Arizona’s first at-bat. Kaiah Altmeyer led off with a double, extending her hitting streak to 14 games. Altmeyer had a hit in every game this season until the second game of the doubleheader.
A bunt single by Regan Shockey put runners on the corners with no outs. Then the wildness started.
Sydney Stewart loaded them up on the first hit-by-pitch. A one-out wild pitch moved everyone up and pushed Altmeyer across for the first run of the night. That’s all the Wildcats could manage off the bases-loaded with no outs situation.
Arizona was more productive in the third. Altmeyer led off again, getting on with a walk. A fielder’s choice that didn’t record an out put two on. This time, Stewart got the hit and drove in two.
Another hit-by-pitch and an error loaded the bases with no outs again. Paige Dimler’s groundout pushed across the fourth run of the game. Jenna Sniffen followed with a single to score two more and give Arizona a 6-0 lead.
Altmeyer led off for the third time in four innings in Arizona’s next offensive half. She reached for the third time. Shockey’s single put the Wildcats’ leadoff hitter in scoring position with no outs for the third time, but Arizona couldn’t push any more runs across.
The Wildcats got close to the run rule in the fifth. They once again loaded the bases with no outs. Logan Cole knocked in one with a sacrifice fly, but Arizona squandered another prime scoring opportunity.
The Wildcats got the leadoff on base again in the bottom of the sixth with an opportunity to get the run-rule victory. They couldn’t move the runner past first, though.
Sarah Wright came in for Silva in the top of the seventh. The freshman gave up a leadoff single but Biehl started a superb double play behind her to wipe away the danger. Wright ended it on a groundout to first.
“Tayler’s a Golden Glove, literally a Golden Glove,” Silva said. “She saves our life a lot. And Regan out there in center field.”
Silva scattered five hits in six innings and walked one. She struck out five. It improved her record to 3-0 on the season and lowered her ERA by more than one point to 1.47.
Swain took the circle to start the game against Colorado State.
“I love her presence and just the way she goes about her business,” Lowe said. “Very, very direct, to the point, business-like approach and she goes to work. And we wanted to try her in an opening role and see what that looked like.”
It took a bit for Swain to settle in during her first start of the season. She had some issues with illegal pitches and hit a batter in the opening inning.
“He said I was doing a little step forward,” Swain said. “I just moved my foot back and stayed that way.”
She shook it off.
“I just try not to let the umpires get in my head,” Swain said.
The senior had just three baserunners in four innings, giving up one hit, one walk, and the hit-by-pitch. She struck out three. It improved Swain’s record to 2-0 and lowered her ERA to 0.94.
Meanwhile, the offense got hot early. Again, the Wildcats manufactured offense. They used walks, errors, hit batters, sacrifices, and groundouts to get on base and advance runners, jumping out to a 3-0 advantage after one.
The team loaded the bases without an out in the third. It took two walks and a fielder’s choice that didn’t result in an out.
Dimler had extended her hitting streak to eight games in the early contest against UC Davis. Her two-RBI single in the third against the Rams made it nine games. She scored Arizona’s third run of the frame when Biehl reached on an error.
The Wildcats put the trim on a run-rule victory in the bottom of the fourth. A single and another error by Colorado State put two on ahead of Miranda Stoddard.
Stoddard had an amazing run last week but teams have been very careful with her in the first three games. It’s tough to keep a hitter of her caliber from coming through eventually, though. Her three-run homer put the Wildcats up 9-0.
Sniffen’s double to right-center pushed across the 10th run. Arizona needed three outs to end the day and prepare for No. 1 Texas.
Ryan Maddox entered the game to wrap things up in the circle. She gave up a walk and a single, but the Rams couldn’t make a dent in the lead.
Arizona now faces a Texas team that was controlled by No. 18 Stanford on Friday afternoon. The Cardinal never trailed, showing the offensive prowess they had previously demonstrated against lesser teams. This was against the No. 1 team in the country, though.
“It doesn’t make a difference,” Lowe said about facing the Longhorns the day after the loss. “They’re a very good team, a very well-coached team. They pitch the ball well, hit the ball well. So we have to come out and play our game and really set the tone from the beginning, I think is very important, and then consistently have that throughout an entire game.”
Lead photo courtesy of Arizona Athletics