South Carolina softball coach Beverly Smith long ago knew the itinerary of the Gamecock’s five-day visit to Tucson: They would do some sight-seeing at Sabino Canyon, eat at P.F. Chang’s, treasure the ESPN broadcast highlights of their victories over St. Francis, and face what Arizona coach Mike Candrea called “a bunch of bashers.”
If there’s anything a Gamecocks softball coach knows, it’s that playing Candrea’s Wildcats is likely to result in more in a bashing than it is to be a bash.
In 1996, No. 1 Arizona beat the Gamecocks in California.
In 1999, No. 2 Arizona beat the Gamecocks in Tempe.
In 2000, No. 4 Arizona beat the Gamecocks in the Fiesta Bowl invitational.
And in 2001, No. 3 Arizona again beat the Gamecocks in Phoenix.
So when Smith and her softball team discovered they would be playing No. 2 Arizona at Hillenbrand Stadium, it probably wasn’t a “we’ve got this” moment.
The Gamecocks know the drill.
The Wildcats beat South Carolina 5-0 Saturday and 9-0 Sunday to advance to the NCAA Super Regional and in doing so limited the Gamecocks to a .157 batting average, as you might expect for a team with the nation’s No. 6 overall ERA, 1.35.
But what didn’t go as expected was that Arizona was not a bunch of bashers but a bunch of slappers. The Wildcats, who lead the nation with 89 home runs, hit just two home runs in two days. They beat the Gamecocks with the most unexpected of all things, small ball.
“Their short game is what really won the games for them,” said Smith. “I think it’s the constant pressure Arizona’s offense puts on you.”
If you are good enough to get to the Women’s College Softball World Series, you need more than the long ball and more than a few well-timed slap hits. You need two pitchers who can shut down Florida and Auburn and Oregon, and that’s what Arizona established more than anything as it outscored its three regional opponents 25-0.
“At this time of year, you have to have the pitching,” said Candrea.
Senior Danielle O’Toole is to UA pitching what Nancy Evans and Jennie Finch were a generation ago. The uncertain element of Arizona’s bid to return to the World Series for the first time since 2010 is reliable pitching from sophomore lefty Taylor McQuillin.
On Sunday she was superb, doing a reasonably close impersonation of the Taylor McQuillin of Mission Viejo High School, who from 2013-15 was one of the nation’s most coveted recruits, winning 103 games as she became the 2014 Gatorade National Player of the Year.
“I kind of re-created who I was as a pitcher and became myself again,” she said after shutting out the Gamecocks.
Well said.
During Arizona’s softball glory years, it often had the nation’s best 1-2 pitching punch, with Evans joined by Carrie Dolan, followed a few years later by Finch and Becky Lemke.
Now come O’Toole and McQuillin, and it gives Candrea a third of the equation necessary to win a ninth NCAA title, combining pitching with power and resourcefulness.
“I’m ecstatic about the way we created runs,” Candrea said. “I don’t think people expected that out of Arizona.”
Of course, the games get more difficult now. Baylor, which is Arizona’s opponent in the Super Regionals, opened the year losing 4-0 to Arizona in the Hillenbrand Invitational. The Bears are 46-12, winning the Big 12 tournament and the NCAA first-round regional by outscoring its opponents 17-4.
Playing a Baylor team that has won 20 of its last 25 games won’t faze Candrea. He has seen it all. In fact, his regional sweep over South Carolina surely brought back memories to the first-ever NCAA regional held in Tucson, 1988, exactly 29 years ago Sunday.
The opponent? South Carolina.
The Wildcats and Gamecocks met at the UA’s old rec-center-type field, which was approximately where the outfield of Hillenbrand Stadium sits. The winner would go to the World Series in, of all places, Sunnyvale, California.
In the deciding game, UA pitcher Teresa Cherry, the first of Candrea’s many Big Game pitchers, allowed her first home run of the entire season.
South Carolina’s two-time All-American catcher, Karen Sanchelli hit two home runs that day. When she came to bat for the third time, Cherry wisely walked her.
Arizona held on to win 4-3 and play in the first of 21 World Series.
Small world: Sanchelli, later the head coach at Florida and Virginia, was part of Candrea’s coaching staff at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, at which Team USA won the silver medal.
On Sunday, there was no Sanchelli at Hillenbrand Stadium, but the outcome was the same. Arizona advanced.
Seems like old times.
