Arizona softball wins a classic game against No. 4 UCLA but no one got to watch

The No. 12 Wildcats are 4-0 at the Judi Garman Classic after taking out UCLA in 10 innings

Arizona softball had a relatively quick turnaround between their late game on Friday evening and early game on Saturday morning. It didn’t slow them down, as the No. 12 Wildcats battled for 17 innings to sweep their doubleheader and improve to 4-0 at the Judi Garman Classic in Fullerton, Calif.

The Wildcats handled Notre Dame easily in a 7-1 game. They returned approximately 30 minutes later in one for the ages, taking down No. 4 UCLA in a dramatic 9-8 comeback victory in 10 innings. Unfortunately, only those at the field were able to see it, as this year’s lone game between the sport’s two greatest rivals was not streamed or televised.

The outing against the Fighting Irish was relatively routine. Miranda Stoddard returned to the circle after starting the late game against Fullerton on Friday night. The grad student threw four innings, shutting out the Irish on four hits, one walk, and one hit batter. She struck out four. She got the win to improve to 5-0.

Aissa Silva and Saya Swain pitched in relief. Silva pitched one inning, issuing one walk but allowing no runs. Swain took the circle for the final two innings. She allowed the only run on a home run. It was the only hit she surrendered. She struck out five.

The Wildcats gathered 14 hits. Regan Shockey led the way with three hits in four at-bats.

Sydney Stewart, Devyn Netz, and Paige Dimler also had multi-hit games. Stewart took the team lead with her eighth home run of the season, surpassing her career high in two years at Washington.

The second game was anything but routine.

Netz has gone up against UCLA many times in her career. Unless they meet in the postseason, this was the last time. It was worth waiting for.

The redshirt senior was in the circle for all 10 innings against the Bruins. She faced 44 batters and threw 163 pitches. She emerged victorious, improving her record to 8-1 this season.

Netz allowed eight runs, six of them earned, on eight hits, four walks, and one hit batter. She struck out seven. She threw 106 strikes and 57 balls before her team walked it off in the bottom of the 10th. She also went one for three in the box with two RBI.

Arizona jumped out to an early lead in the first inning. Kaiah Altmeyer led off with a single and Shockey sacrificed her to second. Netz came up with two outs and hit a double to drive in Altmeyer for the first run.

Netz moved to third on a wild pitch. Dimler, who ended the day with a team-high .492 batting average, stretched her current hitting streak to five games to score Netz and give Arizona a 2-0 lead after one. She has a hit in 17 of her 20 appearances this season, including 15 of the last 16 games.

Both Netz and Bruins pitcher Kaitlyn Terry threw up zeros for the next two innings. UCLA finally got to Netz in the fourth when she had difficulty finding the zone.

Netz hit the leadoff batter and allowed a single to put two on. A one-out walk loaded the bases and another walk brought in the first run for the Bruins. A sacrifice fly tied the game, but Netz got the final out without giving up the lead.

There was no more scoring until the seventh. That’s when things started to get wild.

A single and a walk put two Bruins on the bases with one out. Megan Grant followed with a home run to give UCLA a 5-2 lead. That’s how things stood as the teams went to the bottom of the seventh.

Tayler Biehl led off the home half of the inning with a double. Altmeyer drew a one-out walk to put two on and bring up the tying run. Shockey singled to load the bases ahead of Stewart.

The Arizona catcher came through. Her single scored two runs to make it a one-run ballgame. It also moved Shockey to third, just 60 feet away with one out.

Netz again helped her own cause with a sacrifice fly that tied the game. The teams were headed to extra innings.

The game was played under the international tiebreaking rules with a runner placed on second base to start each extra inning.

UCLA sacrificed the runner to third, but Netz got a strikeout and a groundout to keep her there. Arizona couldn’t move their runner from second in the bottom of the inning.

Arizona got two outs in the ninth. The runner moved up to third on the second out, but the Wildcats were very close to getting out of the inning unscathed. A rare fielding error by Biehl kept that from happening. The runner crossed home to put UCLA up by one again.

Biehl had to put that out of her mind. She was the runner this time, representing the tying run.

Logan Cole sacrificed her to third. Altmeyer’s single drove her in to tie the game again. There was still only one out and a runner on. Shockey singled. She and Altmeyer both moved into scoring position on the throw. Arizona just needed a sacrifice fly to win the game.

Stewart fouled out for the second out. That took the sac fly option off the table.

UCLA opted to intentionally walk Netz. While setting up a force out at any base might have been the reasoning, it still seemed like an odd choice. Dimler, who was hitting .500 at the time, was behind her. With the runner on third, Arizona didn’t need power. It just needed the kind of base hit to the outfield grass that Dimler is good at.

The Wildcats couldn’t get it. Dimler struck out.

The tenth started as poorly for Arizona as was possible. Freshman Kaniya Bragg hit her second career home run to lead off the inning. With the runner on second, that scored two runs for the Bruins.

Netz walked the next batter, but she and her defense stopped the bleeding there. A strikeout and a double play sent the game to the bottom of the tenth with Arizona trailing by multiple runs for the second time in the game.

Just like the first time, the Wildcat hitters came through. They followed UCLA’s playbook.

Dimler stood on second base. Emily Schepp stood in the batter’s box. She had started the game as the designated player, but Stoddard hit for her in the eighth. The two of them combined to go 0 for 4 in the six hole through the first nine innings.

Schepp sent the 1-0 pitch out of the park to tie the game again. It was her only hit of the game.

Terry walked Jenna Sniffen. Emma Kavanagh came in to run for her and was sacrificed to second by Biehl. Cole put runners on the corners with a one-out single.

The Wildcats didn’t miss their opportunity this time. Altmeyer walked it off with the sacrifice fly.

Arizona (20-2) will finish its time in Fullerton with a game against No. 23 San Diego State (13-6) on Sunday. It’s the final game before Big 12 play starts on Friday, March 7 against UCF at Hillenbrand Stadium.

Lead photo courtesy of Arizona Athletics