The Wildcats finish the fall season 5-0 with five blowout wins.
Last spring, Arizona softball lost three of its seven pitchers to injury. Two of the three returned to the circle during fall ball.
The Wildcats brought the fall season to a close with two wins on Friday evening. They started with an 18-0 win over South Mountain Community College and followed that with a 16-0 defeat of Pima Community College.
The most important part of the evening happened in the top of the fourth inning against SMCC. That’s when sophomore pitcher Ryan Maddox entered the game in relief of starter Miranda Stoddard. She was the second of the missing pitchers to get in a game.
Redshirt senior Devyn Netz appeared in all five of the Wildcats’ fall games. The righty started two games in the circle. She also played first base or designated player throughout the fall schedule. There were still questions about Maddox and Sydney Somerndike, though.
The answers to the questions about Maddox appear positive. She faced five batters, sitting down four of them. She gave up one hit and struck out two.
“Little bit of nerves going out there, but it’s just been a lot of work in the spring and throughout the summer and the beginning of fall to get back out there, so it was really fun to be back out there with my team,” Maddox said.
Maddox pitched during the fall season last year but suffered a foot injury before the regular season rolled around. Surgery and rehab have been her focus for almost a full year, but she finally got cleared at the beginning of fall.
“Finally got to see some live hitters during practice,” she said.
For head coach Caitlin Lowe, seeing her pitching staff starting to return to full health is a big deal. Getting the freshman who was supposed to be a big part of Arizona’s success last year was especially encouraging.
“I mean, huge,” Lowe said. “She’s still got growing to do, and I don’t think she feels at 100 percent capacity, but, man, to get her feet wet under the lights. Felt really good to get her uniform on and get all those butterflies and chills and feel what that game feels like. It was great to see her out there.”
Somerndike and freshman infielder Kate Vance are both still out, but getting scrimmage time for the 21 healthy players was the focus of the past three weeks. Lowe wanted to see them take steps forward after each game, especially the game against NAIA team Benedictine University Mesa last week.
“Tonight I saw a lot of situational hitting, and I noticed that they responded from us not executing last weekend, and so I thought that was a really big deal,” Lowe said. “They went to work during the week and fixed some holes we saw in the swings with runners in scoring position, and really executed. Kept the ball on the ground, sac flies. I didn’t think I saw a lazy fly ball tonight, which was great, which is what we talked about last week. So just the intent to get better was the biggest thing. I think this group has a lot of growing to do and haven’t scratched the surface yet, so there’s going to be a lot of work between now and February to see where we can get to.”
Both games on Friday were played under modified rules. If the opponent did not get three outs, the innings ended after the at-bat that pushed the fifth run across for Arizona. If more than five runs scored during the play, they were all counted but the inning came to a close.
The opening game against South Mountain Community College used the run rule, ending the game after 4.5 innings. The later game against Pima Community College went a full seven innings despite Arizona going up by eight runs in the bottom of the fifth.
Arizona showed a lot of power against SMCC, hitting four doubles and three home runs. The home runs disappeared against PCC, but the Wildcats hit six doubles.
Six of Arizona’s seven pitchers stepped into the circle during the doubleheader. Only transfer Saya Swain did not pitch. She pitched a total of four innings in the Wildcats’ first four fall games.
Lead photo by Catherine Regan / Arizona Athletics