Alyssa Palomino-Cardoza has been front and center during Cats' run to Women's College World Series

After tearing both her ACLs in less than two years, Alyssa Palomino-Cardoza spent the 2018 season playing first base.

When the Arizona Wildcats’ year was over, she asked coach Mike Candrea if she could move back to center field.

The position “is where I can be just the best version of me and where I feel the most comfortable,” she said. “And you know he let me run with that.”

Candrea bet big on Palomino-Cardoza, even though the odds — and metrics — indicated it might be the wrong move. Palomino-Cardoza rewarded him by collecting two All-American honors as well as Pac-12 All-Defensive Team and All-Pac-12 awards.

With Palomino-Cardoza and other “super seniors” leading the way, the Wildcats have advanced to the Women’s College World Series. The No. 11 seed, Arizona (41-13) will open play Thursday against No. 3 Alabama (50-7). The double-elimination tournament is the second of Palomino-Cardoza’s career — she and the Wildcats advanced to Oklahoma City in 2019.

While Palomino-Cardoza never imagined being in this moment — making the WCWS in her sixth season as a Wildcat — she says it’s been a fun ride.

And it’s especially sweet that she’s been in center field. Palomino-Cardoza has committed just one error over the last three years. This season, she has been a key contributor for an Arizona defense that ranks among the best in program history. The Wildcats carry a .984 fielding percentage into the WCWS, a mark that’s tied for second nationally behind Oklahoma (.985). The UA’s best-ever single-season mark is is .981, set in 2001.

Palomino-Cardoza credits UA assistant coach Caitlin Lowe — who patrolled center field at the UA from 2004-07 and is considered one of the best to ever play the position — with helping her defensively. In last year’s pandemic-shortened season, Palomino-Cardoza was ranked the seventh-best player in the nation by Softball America.

“Having Cait as a coach has just boosted my confidence — and her confidence in me — knowing that I can go catch anything, even though I’m not the fastest person,” said Palomino-Cardoza, who turned 24 on Saturday. “Being able to go out there and know that any ball hit to me is going to be caught — or I’m going to throw you out at second or at home or whatever it is. So that confidence comes from her.”

Palomino-Cardoza is more than just a fielder — she’s an all-around player who carries a .347 career batting average and has crushed 69 home runs. As a sixth-year senior, she won Pac-12 Player of the Week honors twice.

Palomino-Cardoza has also grown into a leadership role over the past few years. Ex-Wildcats Danielle O’Toole, Katiyana Mauga and Mo Mercado taught Palomino-Cardoza how to approach her teammates in order to get the best out of them. She said her role is to make sure everyone is “rowing the boat the same way.”

As for playing in the Women’s College World Series? Palomino-Cardoza calls it “just surreal, I guess.”

“Being able to finish at the World Series is something that not a lot of people can say,” she said.

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Her journey makes it seem even more unimaginable. She tore her right ACL as a freshman in 2016, then suffered the same injury to her right ACL just a few days before the 2017 NCAA Regionals. Both comebacks were difficult: Palomino-Cardoza relied on her Christian faith as she worked back to full strength.

She would turn to that faith once again this season. During a series against Arizona State in Tempe, Palomino-Cardoza was legging out a single when she fell to the ground, grabbing her right knee. In that moment, Palomino-Cardoza said, “it was a mix of a scare and ‘not again.’”

She ended up missing just three games.

“That’s not a way that I would have wanted to go out — having COVID cancel last year and then going out with an injury this year,” Palomino-Cardoza said. “I don’t think would have been in my plans at all. There was simply a lot of praying and a lot of just trusting in that it was nothing big, and we weren’t going to worry about it until we knew for sure. I think that whole four days was just a lot of faith, praying, and just relief when it came back good news.”

The news got even better Saturday, when she belted a home run to left field that helped secure Arizona’s spot in the Women’s College World Series. After the game, Candrea said that Palomino-Cardoza was “a hero.”

“I’m just so happy for her, because she has had a career that has been very challenging,” Candrea said. “For most kids it would (have) probably been easy to throw in the towel, but she’s not one of those types. She’s competitive, she’s a great teammate. When you see good things happen to good people, it makes you excited.”

Inside pitch

Palomino-Cardoza and former UA ace Taylor McQuillin are best friends, having come into the UA program together as freshmen. McQuillin, who plays professionally and part of the Mexican National Team that is heading to the Olympics next month, is a UA graduate assistant this season. The move allows her and Palomino-Cardoza to finish up together — albeit not in the same way. MCQuillin helps Palomino-Cardoza get out of her own head.

“Not getting so wrapped up in my thoughts but to just continue to play my game and know that I can do whatever it is that I set out to do,” Palomino-Cardoza said.

So far, Palomino-Cardoza’s two favorite moments in her career are winning the 2017 Pac-12 title and playing in the 2019 Women’s College World Series.

“Being able to do a lot of those things for Coach (Candrea) — seeing the smile on his face is something that we love to see,” she said. “We can continue to keep it on his face because you know that man is special and we do a lot of things for him.”