When Katiyana Mauga hits a home run, it’s not called a home run; it’s a Mauga Bomb.
And boy, are they bombs.
At some point in the next couple of weeks, Mauga will likely become Arizona’s all-time home run leader. And she could break the NCAA’s all-time record as the Wildcats attempt to return to the Women’s College World Series.
The Wildcats are dominant, No. 2 in the latest USA Today/NFCA Coaches poll, 40-1 overall on the season and 12-0 in the Pac-12, and Mauga is not the only one contributing.
Danielle O’Toole and Taylor McQuillin lead Arizona’s most-accomplished pitching rotation in years, both with an ERA below 1.00 and one loss between them.
Jessie Harper is on track to break Arizona’s freshman home run record; Alyssa Palomino, also a freshman, leads the Pac-12 in RBIs; five UA starters are hitting better than .350 this season. Senior Mo Mercado leads the team with a .427 mark.
Arizona’s success hid the fact that Mauga was in an extended slump for a chunk of the season.
From March 10 until the first game of a March 29 doubleheader, a stretch of 21 games, Mauga hit .212 with just three home runs and 13 RBIs.
Then Mauga flipped the switch.
In a three-game sweep of Stanford last week, Mauga had six hits in nine at-bats; four of those hits were home runs.
In her last seven games, Mauga is hitting .523 with six home runs and 14 RBIs. It started with the second half of a double-header against Grand Canyon on March 29, when she hit a two-run homer .
Mauga has won Pac-12 Player of the Week two weeks in a row.
The difference came in her batting stance.
“The last at-bat of the GCU game, I definitely changed something in my stance and that helped out a lot,” Mauga said. “I used it in Cal, and I’m definitely seeing the ball bigger now. My foot, my stance. My front foot is still slightly in front of my back foot, so I can stay in and see the ball longer.”
UA coach Mike Candrea has been impressed .
“She’s squared up again and just looks so athletic and comfortable right now,” Candrea said. “I’m happy for her that she’s found it.”
Mauga now has 83 career home runs, eighth-most in NCAA history. She’s four off of Arizona’s record of 87, set by Stacie Chambers in 2011, and 12 off the NCAA record of 95 set by Oklahoma’s Lauren Chamberlain in 2015.
Mauga has 14 regular-season games remaining and anywhere from two to 15 more than that, depending on how the Wildcats fare in the postseason.
“It’s kind of tough to chase something,” Candrea said of the record. “But it’s a challenge, and she’s got a good frame of mind. The next four weeks she’s going to have to earn it because the pitching will definitely step up.”
Candrea will ‘cherish’ Hall of Fame induction
Candrea was announced Monday as an inductee into the National Softball Hall of Fame.
The honor, decided by USA Softball, was a long time coming.
Candrea recently won the 1,500th game of his long Arizona coaching career; he has won eight WCWS titles.
Candrea also coached Team USA to a gold medal in 2004 and a silver medal in 2008. And he coached Team USA to gold medals at the 2003 and 2007 Pan American games.
Candrea is one of nine inductees who will be honored at the induction ceremony in Greensboro, North Carolina, on Oct. 21.
Candrea said Tuesday that it’s “an honor” to be inducted.
It’s “one that I will cherish,” he said. “Any time you get inducted into those, it’s good fortune to be able to coach great athletes and have great people work with you. For this one in particular, to be able to be a part of the USA program for the 2004 Olympics and 2008 will always be a special part of my career. So I feel very honored.”
Cats rise in rankings
Arizona has won 25 consecutive games and is 40-1 this season.
Arizona rose to No. 2, from No. 4, behind Florida State, in the USA Today/NFCA Coaches rankings, with seven first-place votes.
Oregon, which UA will face at Hillenbrand Stadium from April 21-23, dropped to No. 4 in the poll with one first-place vote. The Ducks lost two of three games to UCLA over the weekend.
The Wildcats also rose to the top spot in the ESPN.com/USA Softball poll, and remained at No. 1 in the RPI ratings.
