The Wildcats also secure a 2nd place finish in the Big 12 regular season
After almost any game, Arizona softball head coach Caitlin Lowe talks about making adjustments. Did her team make them or not?
On early Friday afternoon, the answer was a definitive, “Yes!” The No. 12 Wildcats defeated the Houston Cougars 10-1 in five innings.
Those adjustments started in the circle with starting pitcher Miranda Stoddard and pitching coach Christian Conrad.
“Just her and Christian going to work on making an adjustment,” Arizona head coach Caitlin Lowe told Houston’s ESPN+ crew. “And with good teams, they’re coming in with the game plan, and you have to make an adjustment. So that felt good.”
The adjustments had to come quickly. Stoddard was not sharp in the early going.
Houston loaded the bases against Arizona’s No. 2 pitcher with two singles and a walk in the bottom of the first. Her defense came to her rescue with a 5-2-3 double play. A groundout ended the immediate threat.
The Cougars were right back at it in the bottom of the second. Freshman designated player Maddie Hartley led off with a home run that put Houston up 1-0.
The scoring seemed to snap the Wildcats out of their slow start. Stoddard faced just nine batters from that point through the end of the fourth inning. She was locked in, and so was her defense. The team turned two double plays and caught a Cougar trying to steal second in that span.
Arizona’s offense was following the same rise as its pitcher. The team got its leadoff runner on base in each of the first two innings but couldn’t get her in. The Wildcats responded after Houston put the first run of the game on the board.
Kennedy got things started with a leadoff walk in the top of the third. A wild pitch and a single had runners on the corners with no outs. Kaiah Altmeyer drove in Kennedy with a single to tie the game and once again put runners on the corners with no outs.
Arizona exploited a questionable decision by the Houston defense to take the lead. With Regan Shockey on third, Altmeyer took off to steal second. Cougars catcher Isabel Cintron opted to try to throw Altmeyer out. That opened the door for Shockey to steal her second base of the inning. This time, it was home.
Shockey’s two stolen bases give her 19 on 21 attempts this season. Arizona added four as a team, increasing the season total to 42. That’s the most steals since the Wildcats had 51 in 2015. No individual Wildcat has had double-digit steals since Jasmine Perezchica had 10 in 2022. Tayler Biehl also has nine this season, giving Arizona the potential to have two in double figures this year.
Arizona continued to add on each inning. Stoddard got a measure of revenge with a leadoff home run in the fourth. Her 12th home run of the season put Arizona up 3-1. A one-out triple by Jenna Sniffen set up another run in the top of the fourth when Kennedy’s groundout drove her in.
The game had been moved up two hours to try to avoid rain. That rain arrived and was starting to come down harder in the fifth. It made it more pressing to get the game in the books as soon as possible.
Arizona took care of that.
Sydney Stewart hit Arizona’s second home run of the game. This one was of the two-run variety to put Arizona up 6-1.
Stoddard got another rally started with a two-out walk. Biehl singled, making up for a baserunning gaffe that likely cost Arizona a run the inning before. Sniffen drew another walk to load the bases.
That ended the game for UH pitcher Nicole Bodeux. She was replaced by the Cougars’ home run hitter, Hartley, who had been playing DP.
Hartley fell behind Kennedy 2-0. The third pitch was the big mistake, though. Arizona’s left fielder sent it out of the park to centerfield for the grand slam. The Wildcats had a nine-run lead. They just needed three outs to end the game early.
Stoddard ran into a few problems for the first time since the second inning. She gave up a leadoff single. A one-out walk and a wild pitch put runners on the corners. That had the coaches motioning to the bullpen.
Saya Swain relieved Stoddard. She induced two flyouts to put an end to the game and get the players out of the rain.
Stoddard got the win, improving her record to 11-0 this season.
“I think we came out and did what we wanted to do,” Kennedy told the ESPN crew. “I think we bounced back really good after that first home run, so I’m just really proud of everything that we did.”
The combination of the win and Iowa State’s loss to Baylor on Friday secures second place in the Big 12 regular season for the Wildcats. It’s their highest conference finish since winning the Pac-12 in 2017. It’s just their second finish in the top half of their conference since the same year.
Lead photo by Ryan Kelapire