The streak is over.
After making the NCAA Tournament every year since 1987, the Arizona softball team will not be participating this year.
When the field of 64 teams was announced Sunday afternoon, the Wildcats weren’t in it.
For the first time in 35 years, one of the elite programs — with eight national championships and 25 appearances in the Women’s College World Series — is on the outside looking in.
UA was the first team listed in the first four out, which also included Mississippi State, Penn State and South Alabama.
As expected, Oklahoma is the overall No. 1 seed. Despite losing the Pac-12 Tournament title game 7-4 to Utah Saturday night, UCLA is the No. 2 seed.
Besides UCLA, five other Pac-12 teams made the NCAAs: Utah, Stanford, Oregon, Washington and Cal.
The first eight regional hosts for the double-elimination format, who will host Super Regionals if they win are Oklahoma, UCLA, Florida State, Tennessee, Alabama, Oklahoma State, Washington and Duke. Only three times in more than three decades have all eight teams advanced.
The other eight regional hosts are Stanford, LSU, Arkansas, Northwestern, Texas, Georgia, Utah and Clemson.
One surprising note for the Pac-12 was Stanford, who didn’t earn a Top-8 seed after having the No. 3 RPI and No. 1 strength of schedule.
Utah is in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2017.
After the teams were announced, the committee chair, Kelly Gatwood, said they focused on results on the field and overall résumés.
For UA, that was most likely the reason they didn’t make it, as it went 29-25 and won only six games in the Pac-12 regular season — including a 14-game losing streak — along with an RPI of 47.
Despite the Wildcats playing their best ball of the season in the last three games — last Sunday’s 9-4 win over Cal in the regular season finale; the 13-4, five-inning rout of ASU in Wednesday’s play-in game for the first Pac-12 Softball Tournament; and their gutsy performance in a 4-3 loss to No. 1 seed UCLA on Thursday — they ended up being just a little too late to sway the committee.
Arizona believed that they belonged in the NCAAs, yet the Wildcats knew heading into the Pac-12 Tournament this past week that they were on the bubble. UA’s Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year Allie Skaggs was just one player who gave this last-minute plea to the selection committee.
“Look at all our games, the games we are losing are close,” Skaggs said on Tuesday. “Our team is one or two plays away from winning every single one of those ballgames. We’re going to be scrappy, and we carry on the same exact thing from last year to our team. When we made postseason, I doubt anyone thought that Arizona was going to go in and make it to the World Series, but we did. That’s what we do. I think that letting us play in this sort of environment and just saying, ‘Give them a chance and let him run with it.’ That’s what our team will do.”
Last season after another long losing skid, the Wildcats were one of the last four teams in and went on a magical run to the World Series. All three aspects of the game came together, especially with Hanah Bowen and Devyn Netz becoming one of the hottest pitching duos of the postseason.
The Wildcats won’t get a shot at going on another run this season.
Arizona went through a rough patch that started when junior Carlie Scupin was hit by a pitch and broke her forearm. She had surgery and was out for six weeks before returning to the lineup. Not having one of their best hitters in the lineup definitely changed things. It changed how opponents pitched to the top of the order and it was one less bat to help them in those tight games.
There were also some absences. Senior Izzy Pacho stepped away for two weeks for a mental break. Then, junior shortstop Sophia Carroll missed two road series – but was back for the home games. She ended up leaving the team at the end of April.
UA was 1-7 in one-run games. During the 14-game losing streak, six were lost by one or two runs. There was a lack of timely hitting. And, of course, giving up too many big hits.
Even though it is a disappointing end to their year and the Wildcats are missing out on another potential postseason run, there were still positives.
The way the season ended with two commanding wins and not backing down against one of the best teams in the country in UCLA.
The Wildcats were second in the nation in fielding percentage (.985), third in the nation in scoring (6.87 runs per game) and sixth in the nation in batting average (.329). They also outscored their opponents 371-222.
Skaggs was an integral part of that fielding percentage with no errors in 162 chances. She had 88 putouts, 74 assists and participated in 10 double plays.
She followed up a season as the Pac-12’s co-home run champion (24) by leading the league in RBIs with 64 — good for fifth in the nation. She also crushed 14 home runs.
Devyn Netz was the workhorse in the circle who had 39 appearances (in 54 total games) in which she struck out 135 batters in 171.1 innings of work. On top of that, she played first base while Scupin was out and she batted. Netz hit .303, 13 home runs and drove in 40. She was named a second team All-Pac-12 player.
Three Wildcats on the Pac-12 All-Freshman team. Dakota Kennedy — also a first team All-Pac-12 — Olivia DiNardo — also a second-team All-Pac-12 player — and Tayler Biehl.
After trailing 4-0 in the first inning, the Arizona Wildcats rallied to run-rule Arizona State 13-4 in the first game of the inaugural Pac-12 Softball Tournament at Rita Hillenbrand Stadium.
