When a pitcher has won 21 games, expecting her to have two bad games in a row is asking for a lot. Stanford’s Alana Vawter surrendered seven earned runs to Arizona on Friday night. On Saturday afternoon, she gave up 11 hits but held the Wildcats to just 3 runs in a 4-3 Cardinal victory.
The win gave Stanford its first series victory in Tucson ever.
Hanah Bowen pitched a complete game, matching Vawter in earned runs surrendered with just three. She gave up six hits and four total runs on senior day. She struck out four and walked three.
“I thought it was pretty good,” Bowen said. “I thought I competed out there. Just tough that we couldn’t get some base hits…to string together. Other than that, I’m proud of this team.”
Arizona got a runner on base with one or fewer outs in six of the seven innings but were only able to push a runner across on an RBI single from Jasmine Perezchica in the top of the second for most of the game. Then, came the bottom of the seventh.
Perezchica came through again, getting on base to lead off the inning. Janelle Meoño followed with her own single to put two on with no outs. After a foul-out by Sharlize Palacios, Allie Skaggs was hit by a pitch to load the bases with one out.
Izzy Pacho put Arizona’s second run on the board with an RBI, but it came at the expense of an out as she reached base on a fielder’s choice. The Wildcats were down to their last out, trailing 4-2.
Carlie Scupin, who has raised her conference batting average from .167 to .217 over the weekend by going 5-for-9 in three games, launched a ball to left-center with runners on the corners. Meoño scored easily from third.
Blaise Biringer, who ran for Pacho, seemed to get a good jump from first, but it wasn’t clear if she was running all out despite there being two outs. A good relay kept her at third.
“I’d have to probably go watch it because I was watching the ball,” head coach Caitlin Lowe said about the jump. “But I am sure with two outs she was on her horse…It was bam-bam, and it probably would have been a close play at the plate. I choose Paige (Dimler) again in that moment.”
Arizona’s rally fell short when Dimler grounded out to Vawter.
Now, the Wildcats wait to see if they get into the postseason. They will spend the day together when the field is announced at 4 p.m. MST on ESPN2 on Sunday. None were willing to predict whether they get in.
“We’ll see tomorrow,” said Scupin.
They end the regular season 33-20 overall and 8-16 in conference play, guaranteed for at least a share of last place in the Pac-12. If California loses to UCLA, they will tie Arizona at 8-16, but the Golden Bears took the season series between the two teams. The Wildcats were No. 41 in RPI before the loss.
“We’re just hoping for more games to play,” Lowe said.