No. 11 Arizona flexed its offensive muscle with four home runs in game one of the series against Utah (8-21, 0-2 Big 12) on Friday afternoon. In game two, the Wildcats used singles, walks, and Utah errors to get the 8-6 victory. It secured the first Big 12 series win for UA (25-4, 3-2 Big 12) since joining the conference this year.
“I thought they did a really good job of manufacturing runs today,” said Arizona head coach Caitlin Lowe. “I thought that was a really big deal…That’s their ace that we saw today, so being able to take what she gave us, and that was singles to start, and then being able to throw some drags down that put pressure on the defense and make them play defense. But I thought we put pressure on them almost every inning, which felt good.”
Arizona scored its eight runs on eight hits. Only two of those went for extra bases and none left the yard. The Wildcats also exploited four walks, a wild pitch, and four Utah errors.
“The mindset is just put the ball on the bat and just make the pitcher throw something over the white,” said junior outfielder Kaiah Altmeyer. “But I think our team just does a good job of communication and passing each other’s at-bats along to each other, and just learning from each others’ at-bats.”
Utah starter Hailey Maestretti came in with a much better ERA than game one starter Taylor Jacobs. The problem was that Maestretti also came in allowing opponents to hit .280.
That’s not a recipe for success against a team with five batters who hit at least .400. The lowest batting average in the Wildcats’ lineup coming in was the .254 of Tayler Biehl. The second-lowest was Kiki Escobar at .333. There aren’t places for a pitcher to breathe.
The Wildcats proved that when six of their nine starters got at least one hit. Altmeyer and Dakota Kennedy both had multi-hit games.
Arizona chipped away in the opening inning. Kennedy led off with a single. Altmeyer’s one-out single put two on for Devyn Netz.
Netz drove in the first run with a single of her own, then advanced to second on a Utah throwing error. Sydney Stewart’s groundout scored Altmeyer from third to put Arizona up 2-0 after the first inning.
Left-handed pitcher Ryan Maddox started the game in the circle for Arizona. She went to at least three balls on all four batters she faced and had three full counts in the first inning, but she got through with just a two-out walk.
Maddox is a pitcher who moves the ball around, but Lowe doesn’t think that leads to a higher tendency to walk batters if the umpire has a tight zone. She did think the zone was tight for both teams, though.
“I thought it was just the zone we were working with today,” Lowe said. “We saw that from the first inning on. It was pretty consistent, I thought, throughout the game. So our hitters did a great job of taking until they got their pitch, which was great. And theirs kind of did the same thing. So I think…both offenses worked with what the umpire was giving them.”
The second inning was more difficult. Maddox once again went to a three-ball count on the first two batters. She got the groundout from the leadoff but issued a walk to the two-hole hitter. A single put two runners on with one out, then another walk loaded the bases. That was it for Maddox.
Early in the season, Arizona pitching coach Christian Conrad said he liked the pairing of Maddox and Miranda Stoddard. It was typically Stoddard starting and Maddox relieving, but things went the other way against the Utes.
Stoddard entered the game in the second inning with the bases loaded and one out. She got the strikeout for the second out. A one-out single by Sianni Sakai put Utah on the board, but that’s all the Utes got from the bases-loaded situation.
Stoddard allowed a one-out solo home run in the top of the third. Utah finally kept Arizona from scoring in the bottom of the inning, but that didn’t last long.
Kennedy again led off an inning with a hit. This time it was a double. The Arizona left fielder ended the game 2 for 2 with two walks. She scored three runs.
The Utes used the five-infielder, two-outfielder shift for Shockey, resulting in the rare right field to first base infield groundout, but it moved Kennedy to third with one out. Altmeyer’s groundout put another run on the board for the Wildcats. It was 6-2 after four.
Altmeyer has continued to produce since Kennedy’s return from a hand injury last week. The right fielder had taken over both Kennedy’s left-field position and her leadoff spot in the batting order. She has since moved down to the three hole and back to right field. Of the players who have enough at-bats to qualify, she is third in batting average in the Big 12 by mere fractions. Jessie Clemons of Iowa State is at .4492 while Altmeyer is at .4487.
“Personally, I don’t really care where I am in the lineup,” Altmeyer said. “But, yeah, I think just being in the leadoff role compared to the third hole, it’s different because most of the time Regan (Shockey) or Ko are on base. So for me, I know I got to cash in and score them, whereas my job on leadoff is just to get on base.”
A walk, a one-out single, and a sacrifice bunt put Utah runners at second and third in the top of the fifth. Stoddard’s pitching day was over.
Stoddard moved back to designated player and Aissa Silva entered the circle. Silva got the strikeout to send it to the bottom of the inning.
Arizona tacked on two more runs in the fifth on two straight singles by Stewart and Stoddard. Stoddard moved to second and Stewart scored on a fielding error by Utah’s left fielder. Pinch runner Zaedi Tagalog advanced to third on a two-out groundout by Biehl and crossed the plate on a wild pitch to put Arizona up 8-2 after five.
Things went sideways for Silva and her defense in the top of the sixth. A leadoff single was followed by an error by Biehl to put two on with no outs. Silva went to a 3-2 count on the next batter but got the flyout. She recorded the second out with another flyout.
On Friday, Silva had some issues closing the deal once she got to 0-2 or reached two outs. That issue raised its head again on Saturday evening.
“Aissa came in and threw to some excellent batters, and we were honestly one pitch away in some of those at-bats from just shutting the door, and we’re just so close,” Lowe said. “We get two strikes on someone, and we’re so close from slamming the door, and I think that’s gonna come with time.”
The Arizona lefty went to a full count on Emily Capobianco then lost her to the walk to load the bases. Silva jumped ahead 0-2 on Jolie Mayfield. The next pitch snuck out of the yard just over the left-field fence. The grand slam cut Arizona’s lead to two runs.
Saya Swain came in to get the final out of the sixth, but what had been a blowout was now a close game.
“If it’s 8 to 0, 15 to 0, I have the same mindset,” Swain said.
Swain got the a foulout to get out of the sixth when Escobar ran it down in foul territory. When Arizona couldn’t put any more runs on the board in the bottom of the inning, she went back out in the top of the seventh to slam the door. A deep fly to left field was the first. The next two batters went down swinging on three pitches each. It was Swain’s first save of the year.
“Nice to be back in the save column,” Swain said. “I know the past few appearances going out there, I didn’t really do my job, and my job here is to be a closer. So I was just pounding in on going out and closing the game and just throwing strikes. I know I’m my best when I’m throwing strikes. And I say this not being cocky, but I know I’m almost unhittable when I’m out there throwing strikes.”
Stoddard got the win to improve to 6-0 on the year. She gave up one earned run on five hits and one walk in 3.1 innings. She struck out one. The outing improved her ERA to 2.62.
Maddox pitched 1.1 innings. She was charged with one earned run on one hit and three walks. She struck out one. It increased her ERA to 2.71.
Silva threw 1.0 innings, giving up four runs on two hits and a walk. None of the runs were earned, so it dropped her ERA from 2.62 to 2.49. She struck out one.
Arizona and Utah will return to the field at 11 a.m. MST/1 p.m. CDT on Sunday. The Wildcats will be searching for their first Big 12 sweep.
“Winning every series is tough, and sweeping is hard,” Lowe said. “So we’re gonna have a challenge tomorrow and they’re gonna be ready to go and we’re gonna get their best game, and it’s up to us to show up and control the momentum from the beginning.”
Lead photo courtesy of Arizona Athletics