Regional final Sunday was a busy day for a lot of host teams. Four host teams went in needing to win two games, including No. 1 overall seed Texas A&M. The 13th-seeded Arizona Wildcats joined them, needing to defeat the Ole Miss Rebels twice to advance to Super Regionals.
Arizona joined the top overall seed and two other national seeds by being eliminated in regionals. The Wildcats split with the Rebels, defeating them 10-1 in five innings in Game 6 before dropping the “if necessary” Game 7 by the score of 7-4.
“I couldn’t be more proud of the fight and…the grit—all of it—that our team put in today,” said Arizona head coach Caitlin Lowe. “And just couldn’t be more proud of the group…and super proud of our seniors and the legacy that they left.”
In addition to the Wildcats and the TAMU, 14th-seeded Duke was eliminated on Sunday. No. 16 seed Oregon avoided the same fate by defeating Stanford twice. No. 10 LSU didn’t even get that far; the Tigers were sent packing by Southeastern Louisiana on Saturday.
When Arizona and Ole Miss played early Saturday afternoon, the ball flew out of the park early and often. The Wildcats and Rebels combined for 18 runs, with Ole Miss taking the 10-8 victory. The conditions suggested it could be the same on Sunday.
The wind was whipping out of the park, swirling towards center and left fields. To account for that, Arizona started Miranda Stoddard. The grad student tends to keep the ball down, making it less risky for the Wildcats.
Stoddard came through. She threw five innings of one-run ball. She gave up one run on five hits. She didn’t issue a walk and struck out two.
While the Rebels’ offense may have fallen off from Saturday, Arizona’s did not in the first game. The Wildcats played as the designated road team, and it worked well for them.
Arizona jumped out to an early lead, giving them confidence. The team built on it, smacking the ball regardless of who was in the circle.
The Wildcats got hits from their first four batters. The fourth was the biggest. Sydney Stewart came up with two runners on and hit the ball to right-center. The Wildcats were up 4-0.
Stoddard gave up a home run to Binford in the bottom of the inning, but that was the last real danger the Rebels presented.
The second game was an entirely different situation. This time, Ole Miss was the road team again.
The Wildcats went to the pitcher who had won many big games for them. Devyn Netz came into the weekend with 22 wins and just five losses this year. She was a major reason Arizona was hosting regionals for the first time since 2021.
There were risks to it, of course. Netz tends to throw up in the zone. A good offensive team can send those rise balls out of the park, especially since she throws a lot of strikes. Netz gave up two home runs to the same Rebels team on Saturday.
Sometimes you have to go with who got you there, though. As a redshirt senior with 22 wins and 19 home runs, it is not difficult to argue that Netz deserved that opportunity.
Unfortunately, for the second straight day, a combination of defensive lapses and the pitching tendencies of Netz put Arizona in an early hole.
Netz sat down the first batter, then she ran into problems. Just like Saturday, the Wildcats had an error at second base that was followed by a home run off the bat of Aliyah Binford. It put two runs on the board.
If Netz could stop the bleeding there, Arizona would still be in a good spot. The Rebels’ pitchers had conceded 18 runs to the Wildcats’ offense over two games, giving them eight on Saturday and 10 in the early game on Sunday.
Netz got one more out. Without the error, that would have ended the inning. In reality, though, there were only two outs.
Arizona’s pitchers have given up a lot of two-out rallies this season. Netz allowed another one this time. A double was followed by Mackenzie Pickens’ two-run homer. For the second straight day, the Rebels led 4-0 before Arizona came up to bat.
Arizona tried to respond in the bottom of the inning. Two singles and a hit-by-pitch loaded the bases with one out. Kaiah Altmeyer drove in a run with a single, keeping the bases loaded for designated player Emily Schepp.
It was a frustrating day for Schepp. She came to the plate with the bases loaded for the second time on Sunday. In the first game, it was her turn with one out and the bases full of Wildcats. She hit into an inning-ending double play. This time, it was a fly to shortstop that wasn’t nearly deep enough to get the runner home from third.
Stoddard drew a two-out walk to force in another run, but Jenna Sniffen hit a liner to right field to end the inning. Ole Miss had the freshman third baseman scouted well. It was the first of two flyouts to right for her in the game.
Netz seemed to settle down in the second. She threw up a zero, getting the Wildcats up to bat with a two-run deficit. Ole Miss lefty Brianna Lopez responded with a zero of her own.
Netz ran into another hot hitter in the top of the third. Persy Llamas hit a home run for the third time in two days against Arizona. The solo shot gave the Rebels a 5-2 lead. That ended the day in the circle for Netz.
“I just think it was honestly just being able to hit my spots, at the end of the day,” Netz said. “And sometimes a team just has your number, and that’s what I felt like in today’s game and yesterday.”
Lefty Aissa Silva came in for her righty teammate. A single and a double put two in scoring position. A sacrifice fly put the Rebels up by four once again.
Stewart got one back for Arizona in the bottom of the inning. Her 19th home run of the season went to right-center, as so many of her big flies have this year. This solo homer cut the lead to three again.
Rather than go to Stoddard in the circle, Lowe and her staff opted to bring Silva back out for the fourth. She got the first two outs, but Arizona ran into an opponent’s two-out rally again. It was another long ball from Binford. The lead was four again.
One-out singles by Kennedy and Shockey put Arizona in business again. Netz came up with an opportunity to cut into the lead. She made solid contact, but Llamas snagged her liner at first base. Stewart’s fly to center ended the inning.
Stoddard finally took the circle to start the fifth. She sat the Rebels down in order, punctuating it with a strikeout.
“We trusted everyone…one through 22 to get the job done,” Lowe said. “Did I think Miranda was going to have like 10 innings under her belt, or whatever she had, I don’t know. You just dig a little deeper when it becomes this situation. And I was proud of, was proud of that. Was proud of Aissa being able to come in and people just being able to have each other’s backs. Like everybody has walked into this press conference and said, ‘You know, it was my job to take the ball in that moment and have your back in that moment.’ And that’s cool…We’re not passing along failure. We’re passing along like, let’s go, give me the ball, I’m next, and that mentality felt really good.”
Arizona started to get something going in the bottom of the fifth. Altmeyer led off with a single, bringing up Logan Cole. With her team trailing by four, Altmeyer tried to steal second. She was thrown out for a mile.
“Just a miscommunication,” Lowe said.
Cole sent a fly to left for the second out, ending any real threat.
Lopez got the first two Wildcats out in the sixth, but Arizona started to rally. Once again, it was Kennedy and Shockey getting things going.
A walk and a single put the speedy pair on base. Netz loaded the bases with a walk of her own, bringing up Stewart with an opportunity to tie the game.
Ole Miss decided to make a change in the circle. Freshman pitcher Miali Guachino, the losing pitcher in the early game, was brought in to face the junior catcher. Stewart swung at the first pitch, making weak contact and popping up to shortstop. Danger over.
“My plan was to attack an inside pitch, and I got an inside pitch,” Stewart said.
Stewart got slightly jammed by that pitch.
“She executed,” Stewart said.
The Rebels tried to get an insurance run in the seventh. A one-out single and hit-by-pitch put two on base. A pinch-hit single to centerfield by Rachel Connors should have brought Taylor Strain in from second, but they didn’t count on Shockey.
As Shockey has done so many times this year, she got the ball back in quickly. The relay to Tayler Biehl was sent home just as quickly. Strain was out.
A pair of Wildcat seniors got the opportunity to try to prolong their careers in the bottom of the seventh. Despite coming into the final home weekend of her career hitting .417, Paige Dimler got just a few pinch hits. The final one was with her team’s back against the wall in the bottom of the seventh of regional Game 7.
Dimler got into a 2-0 count and went with the power slap. It went to the warning track in right field for the second out.
The day before, pitcher/infielder Netz came up with two outs and two runners on in the bottom of the seventh. Arizona trailed by two. She could tie or win the game for her ‘Cats. Netz swung at the first pitch, flying out to right and sending Arizona to the losers’ bracket.
Now, it was Stoddard’s turn with two outs. She didn’t have runners on, but she had the opportunity to keep the game and the season going.
It didn’t work out. Her liner went right into the glove of the third baseman, and it was over for Stoddard, Dimler, Netz, and Saya Swain. The journey was worth it, though.
“Of course I’d be the last out today, and of course, Devyn would be the last out the other day,” Stoddard said. “That’s just how the sport works, I swear. But, yeah, I stepped away from the game, and I struggled to find my love for it, and this group has definitely allowed me to go out with such a sweet taste in my mouth about the sport and about what it can mean to be a team and mean to be a teammate. Especially these two next to me, I’m just so grateful for them, and it’s just been fun. And I think that that’s really what it’s all about, and it’s great. I think that that’s exactly what we all want to return to. It’s the same feeling that we had when we were playing All-Stars when we were eight years old, and I think that we kind of bring some of that looseness and silliness and fun back to the game, and so I’m really grateful that I was able to go out in that way.”
For Lowe, it reminded her of 2004. As a freshman, her Arizona team lost in the regionals at Hillenbrand. She thinks her team will grow from it like she and her teammates did over 20 years ago.
“They absolutely fought their tails off for what they believed this team to be and for what they believed to be in the future,” Lowe said. “So, yeah, it’s a hard knock to take, but I also…told them my freshman year it did not end where it needed to be, and to me, that fueled my fire for the rest of my entire life. So sometimes life hands you these things. And for our seniors, they’re going to use it in life, because that’s how it goes. And for the rest of them, they’re going to use it in the game too. And I’m excited to see what that brings next season.”
Arizona finished the season with a 48-13 overall record. The Wildcats went 17-7 in their first Big 12 season, finishing second both in the regular season and the postseason conference tournament.
Lead photo by Ryan Kelapire