After 4 years in Iowa, Arizona softball's Saya Swain embraces new team, weather

After four years at Iowa State, Arizona softball graduate student pitcher Saya Swain is excited to be back on dirt in February.

In June after graduating from Iowa State, Swain, who is from Paris, Texas, transferred to Arizona and its warmer weather.

“The practices, like fall practices and also, like preseason practices, we weren’t able to be on dirt,” Swain said. “So we were always like on tour, so like, the adjustment between that, like going from turf to dirt, like, the first weekend.”

This season, Iowa State doesn’t play a home game until March 28 when it hosts ASU. UA meanwhile opened by hosting the Candrea Classic last week. This week, it hosts the Bear Down Fiesta and then next week is the Hillenbrand Invitational.

“It’s very different,” Swain said. “They’re traveling for seven weeks of season, so I definitely don’t miss that, so it’s nice being home here in Rita (Hillenbrand Memorial Stadium) at the first three weekends, yeah (laughs).”

Swain and the rest of the No. 15 Wildcats (5-1) host the Bear Down Fiesta this weekend, starting on Thursday night. South Alabama (4-1), Cal State Fullerton (4-1) and Ohio (4-0) come to town for the event.

Swain made 90 pitching appearances for the Cyclones, getting 290 strikeouts over 253 1/3 innings pitched, an average of 1.15 strikeouts per inning. She led ISU’s staff with 8.6 strikeouts per seven innings in 2023, got 120 strikeouts in both 2022 and 2023 and had six saves in 2023, second in the Big 12 and 11th in the nation.

She said the difference between starting and relieving is the mindset: with closing, there is little margin for error.

In her Arizona debut on Feb. 6 against Michigan State, she gave up a home run and a double to account for two earned runs over 3 1/3 innings, but on Feb. 7 she gave up no earned runs and had four strikeouts over four innings against Washington.

UA head coach Caitlin Lowe liked how the team’s pitchers responded to adversity that first weekend.

“I think some first appearances didn’t go quite as expected and then to see the second appearance come in and them have responses, I think was the biggest thing and they really just settled into themselves,” Lowe said. “It was cool to see some matchups together and how that could work and really just I think everyone was ready for their moment, whether they executed or not, and they should be ready in the future because I think we’re gonna utilize all of them.”

After the first weekend, Swain is third on the team in ERA with 1.91. Her 7 strikeouts are second on the team.

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“I think as a whole staff we all we did good,” Swain said. “I feel like we did a really good job of picking each other up whenever someone was off, I feel like we did a good job.”

After making 31 and 37 appearances her sophomore and junior years, Swain only made seven last season, but she did have her lowest ERA (2.07) of her college career when she injured her back. Her recovery time was about six months.

“I went out the second weekend of season last year,” Swain said. “So yeah, it was a tough time but I’m just glad to be back.”

Graduate student pitcher/infielder Miranda Stoddard said the pitching staff has been supportive of each as they returned from injuries.

“I think that the biggest thing when we’re coming back after a long time, even if we, you know, you can emulate games as much as you want in scrimmages, but there is nothing like getting out there on opening day and just sitting on the mound,” Stoddard said. “That’s just a whole different mental aspect to that. So I think that just keeping each other calm, not letting the moment get too big and I think especially as like a pitching staff, obviously we have me who came back after, Saya came back after, (senior) Devyn (Netz), (freshman) Ryan (Maddox) (laughs). There’s a ton of us and so I think that just being able to relate as to not even just the physical things, because that’s pretty straightforward, but just the mental aspect of the game.”

Lowe said she liked the experience that Swain and Stoddard, who played at Kentucky for three seasons, bring to the team.

“Oh, it’s exciting,” Lowe said. “I mean, you look at Miranda’s experience, you look at Saya’s experience, they they both have experience at a high level coming in here and against really big teams and really big moments and any time you have something like that, it’s more settling for the players in the field, when they’re playing behind you and when you have that swagger and confidence on now.”

Even before entering the transfer portal, Swain had her eye on the UA.

“Arizona was always my No. 1 option and that’s because I just watched them in the past few years, like, always knew like they had the team to make it,” Swain said. “And I always wanted to be a part of that, so I felt like just coming here I was able to I feel like I was able to like add up to this program.”

Extra bases

• The Wildcats moved up slightly in both major rankings, up to 15 in the USA Softball/ESPN and the NFCA polls. UA was No. 17 in the USA Softball/ESPN poll and 16th for the preseason NFCA rankings.
• Friday’s game is Galentine’s Day, and the UA is giving away wine glasses. On Sunday, kids can run the bases after the game.
• UA has faced South Alabama before but walked away with a tie against the Jaguars. Last year at the Crimson Classic in Alabama, Arizona tied South Alabama 1-1 in 11 innings due to a drop-dead travel time. Stoddard pitched 8⅓ innings of 5-hit ball, starting the game and then re-entering in the 11th.