The Arizona Wildcats (45-11, 17-7 Big 12) and Santa Clara Broncos (32-20, 11-4 WCC) couldn’t be more different. The ‘Cats come into their 37th NCAA postseason as one of softball’s legendary programs. The Broncos are at their first-ever tournament and excited just to get to travel.
“I was super stoked to hear we were going to Arizona, somewhere out of state, instead of like, UCLA, because we are just getting out,” said Santa Clara pitcher Cari Ferguson. “We don’t travel out of state a ton, so it’s just really nice to get out and go somewhere new and different.”
That it was to visit one of the sport’s historic programs was especially exciting for sophomore second baseman Cairah Curran.
“It’s huge,” Curran said. “I think, growing up watching Arizona play, and then now we get to challenge them and compete against them, it’s like a dream come true, to be honest.”
Curran is one of the few to have something in common with Arizona. The native of Hawai’i is well-acquainted with one Wildcat. Fellow islander Jenna Sniffen grew up much like Curran, coming to the mainland during the summer to play travel ball and get noticed.
“We’re actually friends,” Curran said. “I was just telling them, actually, she replied to my [Instagram] story. So we just made the NCAA Tournament, we’re celebrating, and she replies to my story, ‘Bear down.’ I’m excited.”
Santa Clara head coach Gina Carbonatto is pretty excited, too. She is seeing her vision come to fruition with this berth, but it hasn’t been an easy road.
The Broncos don’t even have a full 12 scholarships to offer, as allowed by the NCAA. Carbonatto has nine scholarships funded at Santa Clara. If and when the House settlement is approved and schools can offer up to 25 scholarships, she will still have just nine. She’s still grateful and excited for what she and her players have built.
“It’s pretty cool,” Carbonatto said. “I think that I saw Santa Clara as like a gold mine when I took the head coaching job. Not a lot of historical success in the program, not a lot of resources, not a lot of funding put toward it. And as softball has gotten so big across the country and just the amount of resources that are put in. I mean, look at the upgrades of the field here. I mean, last time I was here was…it just looks so different. So, the amount of money and resources put towards softball because it matters, it’s just outrageous, right? And so I think that’s really unique now to be in this position at Santa Clara, who’s never been here before in 46 years. I think it just goes to show that people believed in what I was saying or selling initially.”
Carbonnato knows what it means to have success on the softball field. She was a three-time All-American at Pacific. She also knows what it means to play at Hillenbrand. Her college career ended on the field in the 2007 regional finals, which Arizona won 7-0 on its way to its eighth national title.
It has come full circle for Carbonnato, who will once again face off against Caitlin Lowe. Lowe was a member of the Arizona team that defeated Carbonnato’s Tigers.
The pair of All-American centerfielders were both speedsters. Carbonnato’s team follows in those footsteps.
“It’s kind of the way I played, as well,” Carbonnato said. “So speed never slumps. That’s one of my things I always say. You might not always get on base, but when you are on base, you’re always dangerous. So it’s speed and it’s good baserunning reads. So those two things go hand in hand. When you have both, it’s really deadly. And so I think that’s something that we have on this team, and we use, and we’re gonna use, and we’re gonna have to be risky and calculated risks, scouted, watching game film, but we have to be good on the base paths to score runs. We don’t have a lot of home run hitters. We also are not in Arizona where the ball flies a little bit more. Our field at Santa Clara is massive. It’s got a 10-foot fence, 220 all the way around. It’s just huge. So we don’t tend to hit for home runs. Home run hitters don’t want to come to Santa Clara, either. Speedy kids do, though. So I get a lot of them and I’m drawn to that. I’m drawn to a lefty that can do a little bit of everything.”
Curran is the prime example of her coach’s offensive philosophy. The sophomore already has 57 career stolen bases. Her freshman and sophomore years are currently second and third for stolen bases in a season. She had 31 in her freshman season and was already in Santa Clara’s top 10 for career steals. Her next stolen base will tie her for third in program history.
“I always say it’s my genetics,” Curran said. “My speed, I feel like comes from my genetics, but growing up, every single time we would run after practice, I would always race everyone. I always tell everyone, growing up, I would race guys, and I would beat them. So honestly, that plays a huge role, because that’s where I got my speed from.”
Home run hitters do come to Arizona. Santa Clara has a total of 16 home runs by the entire team this season. The Wildcats have two hitters who have hit more than that, with Devyn Netz and Sydney Stewart each hitting 17. The team has hit 74 this year, tying Oregon and Penn State for 19th in Division I.
That doesn’t mean Arizona lacks speed or the ability to steal bases. The Wildcats have pushed things more this year than in recent memory. Regan Shockey has 20 stolen bases, tying the number Chelsea Suitos put up in 2015. That’s the last time a Wildcat had 20 or more stolen bases.
The team has 44 stolen bases this year. That is the most for a Wildcat team since they had 51 in 2015.
In addition to historic success, resources, and offensive trends, the Broncos and Wildcats come in with wildly different levels of experience on the current rosters. While Lowe would not say who she planned to start in the circle, Arizona will most likely trot out a starting lineup with just one freshman. She could conceivably have redshirt freshman Ryan Maddox pitch at some point, but Sniffen is the only freshman to get regular starts for the Wildcats this season. Everyone else on the field will probably be a junior, senior, or grad student.
In the other dugout, many of the primary contributors are underclassmen. Curran leads the way on offense. Freshman right-hander Ferguson carries a lot of the load for the pitching staff.
Ferguson’s 1.92 ERA and .236 batting average against are the lowest on the team. Her 1.37 WHIP is second. She has thrown the most complete games (5) and has the most shutouts (3). She has pitched the second-most innings (98.2).
Among the Broncos’ three primary pitchers, she has given up the fewest runs (48) and the fewest earned runs (27). In that group of three, she is tied for the fewest home runs allowed (5) and leads for fewest home runs per inning pitched (0.05).
With so many youngsters expected to contribute early in their careers, the leadership of the Santa Clara veterans is even more important. Pitcher Hannah Edwards and catcher Abigail Charpentier are especially important to the newer players.
“I think Abby and Hannah do a great job of leading by example,” Ferguson said. “Hannah has a really good job leading the team, not only as a pitcher, but also as a sixth year that’s been through it since the team has been maybe at rock bottom, and has worked all the way up to here. And they just use their voices, and they help guide us when we don’t really know where we’re going.”
The first place they’re going is in the dugout opposite the Arizona Wildcats to see if they can pull off an upset for the ages.
Lead photo by Ryan Kelapire