Arizona’s Sophia Carroll (00) (shown diving in ahead of the tag from UCLA’s third baseman Rachel Cid (27) while going from first to third Friday night) was 2 for 4 with a home run and 2 RBIs in the Wildcats’ 8-4 loss to the Bruins Saturday.

 Kelly Presnell / Arizona Daily Star

For most of Saturday afternoon, it looked like this would be the day No. 24 Arizona would see its long Pac-12 losing skid come to an end.

But it was No. 2 UCLA who chipped away at a 4-0 Arizona lead and exploded in the seventh inning. The Bruins scored five runs — that included a three-run home run by former Wildcat Sharlize Palacios — to put the game out of reach, 8-4, at Rita Hillenbrand Stadium.

The loss extends the Wildcats’ conference losing streak to nine heading into Sunday’s series finale at noon. The game will be televised by Pac-12 Networks.

UA coach Caitlin Lowe’s message during Arizona’s the first eight games of the current streak has been to not let the little moments get so big.

Just to keep grinding away, little by little. The clutch hits will come when you need them the most.

Lowe knew that at some point the Wildcats would break through. They were so close in so many of those nine losses — a run here or a run there.

After Friday night’s 8-0 loss to No. 2 UCLA — Arizona’s first shutout since May 13, 2022, against Stanford (10-0, five inning loss) — the questions remained when UA could break through.

But Arizona did that Saturday, scoring four in the bottom of the second thanks to a two-run Sophia Carroll home run and RBI singles from Allie Skaggs and Devyn Netz.

But the Wildcats (24-17, 3-11 Pac-12) couldn’t hold on to the momentum against the league leading Bruins (38-4, 14-3).

“(It was) very tough,” Lowe said of the loss. “Five-run seventh can’t happen. We know that I think we had an opportunity to put a lot of runs on the board today. And I think we didn’t capitalize on those and that hurt us just momentum-wise throughout the game.

Arizona had its chances, but left nine runners on base in a game the Wildcats still led 4-3 going into the top of the seventh inning.

“Just (not) executing in our moments. We did a good job of getting runners on base again, and just not putting too much pressure on ourselves and just coming through with the hard singles,” she added. “In our four-spot inning that we had we were just trying to pass the bat and not be too big. They did a good job of keeping us off-balance from pitcher to pitcher but you just have to do a better job of executing in those moments.”

In that four-run second inning the Wildcats batted around the order. Those were the most allowed by a UCLA starting pitcher since Feb. 26 against Oklahoma. The Bruins lost that one, 14-0 in five innings.

The Wildcats’ 11 hits were the most UCLA has given up to a Pac-12 opponent and the second most this season (that Oklahoma game again, where the Sooners hit 20).

Blaise Biringer got the Wildcats rolling with a single to right field and Carroll — back after an unexplained absence last week — crushed a two-run shot over the left centerfield wall. Then with the bases loaded, Skaggs knocked one in, followed by Netz.

Carroll collected another hit in the fourth inning. One of her hits was off Megan Faraimo (21-2), who was seventh in the nation in strikeouts heading into the series and now has 177. In the last two games Carroll’s batting average has gone up 23 points, from .255 to .278.

“(It’s) see ball, hit ball,” Skaggs said of Carroll’s hits. “I think Soph is one that always keeps it really, really simple. She’s not going to overthink like, “Oh what’s she going to throw me, what’s she going to throw me.’ I think Soph sees a ball over the plate and golfs, which is awesome. She’s confident right now. She feels good.“

With Arizona up 4-0, the Bruins would a run in the top of the third and two more in the fifth to close the gap to 4-3. Maya Brady drove in all three of those runs, bringing home former Wildcat Janelle Meono on a sacrifice fly to right in the third and crushing a home run to right-center in the fifth.

Coming into Saturday’s game, Brady has had her way with Wildcat pitchers. In her eight previous games, she had a .500/1.272/.727 slash line including four home runs, five doubles, 10 hits, nine runs scored and seven runs batted in. She now has 46 RBIs this season trailing only Skaggs in the Pac-12 (56).

UCLA found its’ groove in the seventh inning. Palacios, who went 0 for 3 Friday night, found her hitting stroke and crushed a three-run homer into right center to give UCLA a 7-4 lead.

Arizona has one more shot Sunday to try to end the now nine-game Pac-12 losing streak and win it’s first against UCLA after dropping the last six games.

“Sundays are all about everybody’s cards have been shown,” Lowe said. “It’s your choice you can either give in or absolutely fight like hell. I think they’re ready and they’re angry about these losses. They don’t get sad or upset. They get angry because they know we can win these games. “

Extra Bases

Logan Cole is out this weekend with a mild concussion.

Netz started the game in the circle, but Aissa Silva picked up the loss — she also lost Friday’s game as the starter — and is now 2-3 with a 4.32 ERA.

Arizona pitcher Devyn Netz set a new career high Friday, March 31, with 11 strikeouts in Arizona's 6-0 win over San Diego in the Bear Down Fiesta at Hillenbrand Stadium in Tucson. Netz's complete game shutout included three hits and two walks. Video courtesy Arizona Athletics (via Twitter)

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Contact sports reporter PJ Brown at pjbrown@tucson.com. On Twitter: @PJBrown09