On a day filled with celebrations for the Arizona softball team’s seniors, the Wildcats failed to stop visiting Washington from completing a three-game sweep.
The No. 3-ranked Huskies won 7-4 on Sunday at Hillenbrand Stadium to hand the No. 6 Wildcats their fourth loss in five games.
For the first time in the series, the Wildcats scored first and doubled their run total from the first two games, but a rough outing in the circle allowed the Huskies to move into a second-place tie with the UA (40-11, 17-4) in the Pac-12 standings.
It was the first time Arizona had been swept by an opponent since last April against UCLA. The Wildcats visit the No. 2-ranked Bruins starting Thursday to wrap up Pac-12 play.
Six UA seniors — Taylor McQuillin, Rylee Pierce, Hillary Edior, Tamara “T” Statman, Gina Snyder and Joelle Krist — played in their final regular-season home game at Hillenbrand, although the Wildcats will most likely host postseason games there.
UA coach Mike Candrea said the Wildcats will have to find their identity again.
“We didn’t handle the pressure situations as well as I would like to see, and we’re going to have to be able to do that to move forward,” Candrea said. “But Washington is a good team. They’re a team that was in the championship series last year and they play with a lot of confidence. They’ve got two All-American pitchers, so it’s quite a challenge.
“I was just a little bit disappointed — we couldn’t put it all together. Today, I thought we came out and got some runs on the board, and then Taylor faltered a little bit.”
A home run by Jessie Harper — her 23rd of the season — scored Alyssa Palomino-Cardoza in the first inning for an early 2-0 lead.
The Huskies strung together three singles and a three-run homer to take a 4-2 lead in the second. The Wildcats immediately responded with a pair of hits of their own and then capitalized on a Washington error to tie the game at 4.
Palomino-Cardoza said the team made necessary adjustments — like keeping it simple — to be able to have more success after being held to one run in each of the first two games of the series.
“I think that’s what all of us did, including me,” she said. “Just knowing that we have two pitchers like that at UCLA — just keeping it simple and just playing our game, really, and letting us supply the power.”
Washington’s 1-2 punch in the circle comes from Gabbie Plain and Taran Alvelo. And after Arizona started getting a better read on starter Plain on Sunday, the Huskies decided to put in power-thrower Alvelo after the second inning. Alvelo (22-4) allowed only one hit in five scoreless innings to earn the win.
In the fourth, it was Arizona’s ace who started struggling.
McQuillin (19-7) allowed three straight singles and a run before intentionally walking Morganne Flores to load the bases to try to force an out. But the plan backfired when Sami Reynolds hit a two-run single to center on the first pitch of her at-bat to make it 7-4.
Arizona then pulled its starter, with Alyssa Denham taking charge in the circle. Denham immediately got the Wildcats out of the jam with two strikeouts and a ground out.
The junior went on to allow only two hits in four innings of relief.
“Taylor has thrown a lot of good games for us,” Candrea said. “And I believe in her and believe she still has it. Hopefully they’ll grow from this this weekend, because ... it’s challenging. Any time you put on the uniform, you can win or can lose.
“You’ve got to learn how to handle both and learn from your mistakes. We’d all like to win every ballgame, but when we’re playing at this level it doesn’t happen all the time.”
For McQuillin, the Washington series was a bit of a setback, but she said she believes that can only mean one thing: The UA can only improve from here.
The Wildcats may have to notch a win or two in Los Angeles this week to earn a top-eight seed for the NCAA Tournament.
“I definitely think our team has worked our butts off enough to earn a top-eight seed, but at the end of the day it’s up to how we perform,” McQuillin said.
“We’ve really got to bounce back next weekend, give it all we’ve got and finish off conference and regular-season play strong before we start the postseason.
“Right now, we’re just going to look one day at a time, one game at a time and do what we have to do to head up to UCLA and take care of business.”
Inside pitch
Prior to the game, Arizona tweeted an update on second baseman Reyna Carranco, saying she suffered a broken left hand and broken right thumb and that it is unknown if she’ll return this year. Carranco was hit Saturday by a pitch in the first inning.
