The No. 11 Arizona Wildcats were as close to perfect as they could have asked for in their series-opening win at BYU on Thursday. They were anything on Friday afternoon, but the end result was the same. The Wildcats secured their third straight Big 12 softball series win by taking the second game 15-6.
It wasn’t any single part of the game that failed Arizona at Gail Miller Field. It was everything. The pitching wasn’t sharp. The fielding went sideways at times. Baserunning wasn’t on point. Fortunately for the Wildcats, the Cougars were just a little shakier.
A day after finishing things up in a quick hour and thirty-five minutes, UA and BYU went at it for roughly 3.5 hours on Friday. In addition to the game simply moving slowly, an Arizona fan sitting behind the plate was hit by a foul ball in the bottom of the sixth. The game had to be stopped for over 10 minutes as she was tended to and led from the park by paramedics.
The Wildcats used five pitchers. BYU used three, but one of them re-entered the game.
Miranda Stoddard got the start but went just two innings and didn’t figure in the decision. She gave up four hits and a walk. She allowed two runs, although neither of them was earned.
Brooke Mannon went 1.1 innings in relief. She didn’t give up a hit but surrendered a walk and a wild pitch. She also allowed an inherited runner to score. She struck out one.
Ryan Maddox and Saya Swain also got time in relief. Maddox allowed two earned runs on one hit and a walk. She did not record an out. Swain didn’t allow any runs but she gave up three hits and a walk in 0.2 innings of work.
That meant the hero of Thursday evening had to step back into the circle. Devyn Netz threw a perfect game and hit a home run against the Cougars in the opening game of the series. On Friday, she came in to pitch in the bottom of the fifth with two on and no outs. She calmly sat down the next three batters.
Netz gave up a solo home run in the sixth, but she picked up the win to improve her record to 14-3. She ended her day with a line of one earned run on two hits and a walk. She struck out two in three innings of work.
The Wildcats’ defense didn’t help their pitchers. A two-out error by Tayler Biehl in the second kept the inning going and allowed Aleia Agbayani to reach. Agbayani came around to score a few batters later, but BYU got a bit greedy and tried to score two on a single to shortstop. Keila Kamoku was thrown out at home by Biehl.
One inning later, catcher Sydney Stewart couldn’t hold onto a ball and tag out Lily Owens at home. Yet another unearned run went on the board for BYU.
The Cougars tacked on three runs in the fourth and another in the sixth.
The game was a manageable 10-6 heading into the top of the seventh, but Arizona exploded on offense. The Wildcats scored five of their 15 runs in the final inning.
Biehl and Stewart may have had trouble in the field, but both came through on offense. Stewart hit her 10th home run of the season in the third to put Arizona up 4-1. Stewart went 1 for 2 with a walk and a hit-by-pitch. She drove in three runs.
Biehl was locked in offensively. The shortstop was 4 for 5 with a triple and an RBI. She also stole two bases, improving her season stats to 7 for 7.
Stoddard didn’t let her pitching struggles carry over to offense. She went 2 for 3 with a walk and drove in two runs.
Dakota Kennedy also had a multi-hit game. The left fielder was 3 for 4 with a walk. She was also caught stealing once and narrowly missed being caught stealing a second time when she failed to slide into second base.
Arizona head coach Caitlin Lowe was none too pleased with the outing. When interviewed by BYU’s play-by-play announcer between innings, she expressed the need to play better defense and slide when stealing bases.
The win improved Arizona’s record to 31-5 overall and 8-3 in Big 12 play. BYU slid to 20-8 and 4-4.
The Wildcats secured their third straight series win. They dropped their opening Big 12 series to UCF but have come back to sweep Utah, go 2-1 against ASU, and take the first two against BYU. They also picked up two out-of-conference wins to go 9-1 since the second loss to UCF on Mar. 8.
Arizona will try to get its second conference series sweep of the season when the teams face off again Saturday morning.
Lead photo courtesy of Arizona Athletics