Legendary Arizona softball head coach Mike Candrea exited college softball four years ago. When this season ends, the last active Wildcat player he coached will do the same.
Redshirt senior Devyn Netz will be honored along with three of her teammates after Saturday evening’s game between No. 12 Arizona and No. 14 Texas Tech. Netz spent her freshman season under Candrea and her last four under the tutelage of current head coach Caitlin Lowe.
“I’d probably say over my last five years, playing with Coach and Cait, Cait holds a lot of the same values, but I would probably say that it’s kind of like she’s almost improved upon them as well and just kind of made them her own,” Netz said. “So it’s been very fun to play for that, and I think overall, I’m really grateful to play for both, because they’ve both been very big inspirations, and not only inspiration, but also big influences.”
The two head coaches are not the only big influences on Netz. She has developed under two pitching coaches, former Wildcat great Taryne Mowatt-McKinney and current pitching coach Christian Conrad.
“I learned a lot from Coach T,” Netz said. “I learned a lot about just spin, and I learned a lot about just what it means to be an Arizona softball pitcher. And I feel like Christian came along and took everything that Coach T had taught me, such as spin, late break and just movement pitches, and he’s kind of added the technology side of it, and he’s also added I guess you could say being a different pitcher with all my different pitches, if it makes sense, I could be so many different looks, and that’s something that I’ve really embraced this year, and I’ve learned from him.”
Netz has been in the circle at the Women’s College World Series. Mowatt-McKinney helped her understand the mental fortitude required in those moments.
“That’s something that we talked about all the time,” Netz said. “And she also, when she pitched here, she won a national championship. I mean, she won two…when she won it the year that she pitched, she would give me a lot of the inside scoop on it, but also just a glimpse of what it was like, and I could relate with her a lot. And it was something that I never really knew I needed until I was in those moments. So I’m really appreciative. I’m very thankful and grateful for her, and it’s kind of a little sad that she wasn’t here because she’s been with me for three years of my college career. But she’s been someone who’s been very influential, and I’m very grateful to have her in my life, as well.”
Netz will join true senior Paige Dimler and grad students Miranda Stoddard and Saya Swain in the postgame honors this weekend. Netz and Dimler have spent their entire careers with Arizona, while Stoddard and Swain came in as transfers.
Netz came in as part of a large class that included Allie Skaggs and Carlie Scupin, but some of their classmates moved on to other programs to complete their college careers. Those who stayed finished their Arizona careers last season. Dimler had an even more dramatic experience with her class.
Dimler is the only member of the Wildcats’ 2021-22 freshman class to complete her college softball journey at Arizona. She represents the first of the new era.
“I’m just proud to say that I was the first of the Caitlin Lowe era and have been able to see it through,” Dimler said. “And I’m just really, really proud to be a part of this team and play for Cait.”
From the outside, it didn’t seem obvious that Dimler would see it through. As her role with UA shifted, Dimler could easily have left. It would not have been surprising in this era of college sports, but she stayed resolute.
“I think that this university is special,” Dimler said. “The sense of belonging that is created here and the family environment is hard to find somewhere else. I think that just the way that everyone rallies around each other and truly empowers and encourages each other to strive for excellence every single day is hard to find anywhere else, and so I have continued to choose Arizona every single day because of that. And the family environment and just the way that this university makes me feel special and makes me feel that I bring so much more to the table beyond just what I can do with the bat and the ball, but just who I am and what I have to offer. And so that has just empowered me to want to be great for this university every single day.”
While Netz has been a starter either in the circle, as a designated player, or at first base every year except her freshman season and her redshirt year, Dimler’s path at Arizona was not as linear. She started 45 games and appeared in 48 as a freshman. She was on the Pac-12 All-Freshman team and made the third team of the NFCA All-West Region honorees.
As a sophomore, she started 40 games in 45 appearances, but by her junior year that had dropped to 37 appearances and just five starts. Most of her appearances were as a pinch hitter.
This year, Dimler has seen time as a spot starter in both right field and at designated player, but a good number of her appearances have been off the bench once again. She served as the starting DP in the Kansas series last weekend, though.
“It’s definitely nice to get in a groove,” Dimler said. “Coming off the bench is one of the hardest things to do in softball, and so it’s something that I’ve learned to do more throughout my time here. But it definitely is really nice to know when your at-bat is coming. Being able to kind of prepare and settle into that moment is much more calming than coming off the bench. But I’ve just been working very hard day in, day out to put myself in a position to be in that role every single day for this team, and so it was nice to see some of those efforts kind of coming to fruition last weekend.”
Stoddard’s two years at Arizona were not planned. In fact, she didn’t even plan to stop playing at Kentucky after her third year with the Lexington version of the Wildcats.
“I didn’t know it was gonna be my last season until after it was, so this will be my first and only senior weekend,” Stoddard said.
Stoddard came to the state of Arizona with her then-boyfriend, now-husband Carson Mott. The two met at church when he was serving a religious mission in Kentucky. Stoddard had completed her bachelor’s program in three years at UK. Mott was returning to his home state to play NAIA men’s volleyball in the Phoenix area. She took a job in the corporate sector.
When Mott decided he needed more academically than he could get at Ottawa University-Arizona, he opted to come back to his hometown and attend Arizona while serving as a manager for the Wildcats women’s volleyball team and a volleyball club coach. It opened the door for Stoddard to return to the field with another group of Wildcats and have an amazing end to her career.
“I’m very pleasantly surprised,” Stoddard said. “I’ll just put it that way. I really didn’t have very many expectations for necessarily performance…it kind of just fell into my lap getting to play here. And so I am just obviously so pleased and so happy that not only am I able to play, but I’m able to work so successfully and be on a team that gets along this well and has a chance to go far.”
Last year, Stoddard focused on pitching. Arizona was missing three pitchers who sat out due to injury, including Netz. As a result, Stoddard wasn’t used as a batter or an infielder.
This season has been a breakout year for Stoddard. The deeper Arizona bullpen has allowed her to use all of her skills. She and Netz have pitched the most innings. They have also been chasing each other for the team lead in home runs and hitting in the heart of the Arizona order.
Swain is also having a very good year statistically. She has 40 strikeouts in 38.1 innings pitched. Her 2.37 ERA is the lowest of any full season in her career. While she had a 2.07 ERA as a senior at Iowa State, it came in just seven appearances over the first two weeks of the season.
Swain’s spiffy average is part of a 2.58 staff ERA. Arizona had a 3.93 staff ERA last season and no one was better than Aissa Silva at 3.25. It is the best staff ERA since the freshman season of Netz, when Alyssa Denham and company had a 2.22 collective ERA.
Swain has pitched fewer innings than in any full season since her freshman year. She threw 35 innings in 2021. That season was affected by the pandemic.
Learning to adapt to her role is just one thing she has taken from Conrad. He has put her and the team in a position to be successful by using bullpen management strategies that are more like baseball than traditional softball techniques. He’s also helping her prepare for her next steps in life.
“He’s helped me become a better pitcher,” Swain said. I feel like this year, I have had my lowest ERA. It’s something I have been working on the past four years, and finally, coming here, I’m able to do that. I’m looking to go into coaching after this, and we have recently started to have our Monday meetings, and he just helps me break down what he does as a coach. Hopefully, that can help me in the future.”
There are things to do before that, though. The Wildcats’ biggest series of the regular season starts on Thursday evening when Texas Tech and NiJaree Canady will be in the other dugout.
“It feels like a postseason-type series,” Lowe said. “Honestly, it feels like a super regional type series where, great offense, great pitching, and really just a good opportunity for us to get after it and for us to just level up as a team this weekend. It’s great competition, and we’re gonna face one of the best in the country multiple times.”
The Wildcat seniors’ future plans
Devyn Netz hopes to play professional softball. There are several options in the U.S. Most notable has been Athletes Unlimited, which will be starting a traditional team-based league next season. AU has played a modified form of softball that uses an individual scoring system and an individual champion in the past.
Paige Dimler was just accepted to graduate school. She will continue her education.
Miranda Stoddard will continue working on her graduate degree at Arizona next fall. Her husband, Carson Mott, has long-term hopes of being a college volleyball coach. Shortly after the pair married, he said he was trying to get a role with the Kentucky women’s volleyball program. Stoddard plans to re-enter the workforce after earning her graduate degree.
Saya Swain originally planned to be a nurse. She has changed her goals and wants to stay in softball as a coach.
Lead photo by Ryan Kelapire