Jessie Harper's home run pushes Wildcats past Saint Francis in Regionals

Saint Francis is known for hitting home runs — its 1.48 homers per game rank second in the country. The Red Flash on Friday night lost on, of all things, a home run.

Sophomore Jessie Harper hit her 18th homer of the season in the fourth inning to give Arizona the 1-0 win in the Wildcats’ NCAA Regional opener at Hillenbrand Stadium. The game started late — 9:10 p.m. — and ended around 11:15 p.m.

Arizona will play North Dakota State, which defeated Mississippi State 5-4 in Game 1, at 2 p.m Saturday. The Red Flash will play the Bulldogs in an elimination game at 4:30 p.m.

“I was just trying to get something started,” Harper said. “Taylor (McQuillin) was throwing a heck of the game.”

The Wildcats struggled offensively. They were seeing the ball well, but battled to square it up.

“At this stage in the game, in postseason, we’ll take them any way we can,” Arizona coach Mike Candrea said of the Wildcats' win. “So, hopefully we saved up a lot of hits for tomorrow.”

But Candrea said McQuillin did a great job of working with a tight zone. The postseason start was a first for the Wildcats' ace, who stepped into Danielle O'Toole's shoes in the circle this season.

McQuillin said it was exciting to be the team's Game 1 pitcher for the postseason.

“The postseason is just a different game,” McQuillin said. “So, I think that coming out tonight was super exciting. We just have to keep it going.”

Ashleigh Hughes earned her first start since breaking her left hand in late April, but instead of removing a substitute from the outfield, coach Mike Candrea kept Jenna Kean at right field, moved Hughes to center and Aleah Craighton to left.

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Candrea said seeing Hughes hit one out of the ballpark in her first batting practice since her injury gave him the confidence to reinsert her in the lineup.

“We just have to minimize her number of swings right now,” Candrea said. “But Ashleigh I think has really come a long way. She’s a very competitive young lady and will give us some quality at bats.” 

A sacrifice bunt by Malia Martinez moved Dejah Mulipola, who had drawn a walk, to second base and into scoring position in the second inning, but the Wildcats weren’t able to capitalize.

Right after Harper’s homer in the fourth, Mulipola was inches from hitting her own, but was robbed of adding an insurance run at the left-centerfield wall.

Saint Francis got into scoring position in the fourth after McQuillin walked two consecutive batters with two outs, but struck out the following batter to end top half of the inning.

The Red Flash out-hit Arizona 4-2, but the Wildcats’ defense held Saint Francis at bay and a grounder to McQuillin drew the last out of the game. McQuillin struck out eight batters on her way to her 28th win of the season.

“I didn’t think it would be a one-home-run versus no-home-run game, to be honest with you,” Saint Francis coach Jennifer Patrick-Swift said.

Candrea said the Wildcats will have to continue taking it one game at a time. Their focus has shifted to North Dakota State, which Candrea said is also a very aggressive team.

“It sounds kind of silly, but that’s kind of the way you have to play the game,” Candrea said. “You can’t look beyond tomorrow right now. We didn’t look beyond Saint Francis, and I was very proud of them for that.”