Every year, there are games on the schedule that stand out as significant, the ones players circle and use as motivation all offseason.
Then, there are those like Friday’s: an afternoon contest, at home, against a Seattle U team that No. 3 Arizona had already clobbered last week, with the season’s first real test — Oregon State — looming on the horizon Saturday.
Not unexpectedly, Arizona sputtered at the start. The Wildcats left the bases loaded after three consecutive walks in the first inning. They nearly squandered runners on the corners with no outs in the second before Alyssa Palomino-Cardoza slapped a two-run single off the second baseman’s glove. In the circle, Hanah Bowen’s seven-inning hitless streak to start the season was halted by a Brooke Milder home run, and behind her, shortstop Jessie Harper let two ground balls skip between her legs.
Despite all of that, the Wildcats (8-0) were able to claw their way to a 9-1 victory, underscoring what makes this team so special: Even on Arizona’s off days, it can still crush opponents.
“It’s just having that killer instinct, no matter what the score is,” coach Mike Candrea said. “You’re trying to execute the game at the highest level. Overall, this team has been tremendous with preparation. It’s just the maturity of that senior class that helps with everything like that.”
Once again, the offense roared to life with some long bombs. Dejah Mulipola and Hannah Martinez blasted homers in the third inning; one inning later, Harper hit her first of the season, a line drive over the right-field fence.
Harper’s 77th career homer moved her ahead of Jenny Dalton-Hill on the program’s all-time list. She needs 18 more to catch NCAA record-holder Lauren Chamberlain.
“You can see (Dalton-Hill’s) number out there,” Harper said pointing out to her retired number along the right-field fence. “That’s where every player wants to end up. Those are definitely players that really paved the way for college softball. At the end of the day we’ve had some amazing people come out of Arizona. So if you’re mentioned anywhere with some of those people, you’re in a good place.”
Freshman Carlie Scupin continued her strong start to the season, plating a run with a two-out single in the fourth inning, and Sharlize Palacios brought home the game-sealing run with an infield single in the sixth. Arizona has only had one game, a 5-2 victory over New Mexico, go the full seven innings this year.
As Candrea said, that’s a product of this team’s “killer instinct.”
“Playing Seattle, we knew that we wanted to beat them and we wanted to make it a quick game,” Harper said.
Bowen moved to 2-0 this season, allowing one earned run on four hits and one walk with five strikeouts. She got help from her defense. Palomino-Cardoza made a diving catch in center field and Allie Skaggs turned a double play. Skaggs, a freshman, was filling in for the injured Reyna Carranco at second base.
Arizona continues play in the Wildcat Invitational on Saturday.
