Thursday’s highs reached the low 90s in Tucson. The Arizona Wildcats were 1,500 miles away, and freezing.
The Wildcats (24-3, 3-0 Pac-12) are looking at chilly, rainy conditions for their weekend series against Washington (29-2, 1-2). Temperatures in Seattle hovered in the 40s when the UA landed there Thursday.
The host Huskies kept the No. 1 spot in the latest USA Today/NFCA Coaches poll, released Wednesday, despite losing two games to Arizona State.
Arizona kept the No. 9 spot. The Wildcats opened conference play last weekend with a home sweep over Utah. At the moment, Arizona leads the conference and is the only unbeaten team in Pac-12 play.
Ace pitcher Taylor McQuillin said traveling for conference games will already be tough, but games like the ones they’re expecting in Washington will be especially challenging.
“You’re not going to get a game that’s not top competition,” McQuillin said. “They’re going to want to go out and compete and they’re going to feel comfortable because it’s home-field advantage.”
UA coach Mike Candrea said Washington has the makings of a good team. The Huskies have strong pitching, swing the bats well, play good defense, play aggressively, play extremely confidently at home and are used to cold weather, he said.
The UA is working on getting comfortable with the uncomfortable, a skill that could serve them well this weekend and moving forward into Pac-12 and postseason play.
“It’s going to be a challenge,” Candrea said.
McQuillin leads the nation in wins (16) and shutouts (8). She’s allowed seven runs — five earned — and 35 total hits in her last 95 innings. The junior has 136 strikeouts on the season, and pitched in all three games of the Utah series.
Using McQuillin in all three Washington games is a possibility, and Arizona’s ace said there will be adjustments made to make sure their opponent doesn’t get used to her in the circle.
“I think that, overall, I know I that have great defense behind me,” McQuillin said. “I know our team is making great adjustments in the box every at-bat and I have to keep working for them how they’re working for me.”
Offensively, the bats sparked back to life after a 1-0 loss to Minnesota last week. The Wildcats hit a cumulative .354 and scored more than seven runs per game against Utah. Sophomore slugger Jessie Harper hit .500 and was named Pac-12 Player of the Week.
Alyssa Palomino is hitting .548 since taking over the leadoff spot in the batting order. The Wildcats’ veteran leader is the only Power 5 Conference player hitting at least .480 with eight or more home runs.
Malia Martinez started the season with one hit in her first 14 at-bats, but is now hitting .483. She’s currently second on the team with a .405 batting average. The sophomore said the secret to her recent success has been not stressing about her at-bats.
“I guess not worrying about it too much and taking it one game at a time,” Martinez said. “And not getting too caught up on my last performance, for sure.”
As far as preparing for the cold conditions in Washington, Candrea was blunt.
“You don’t think about it. The more you think about it, the worse it gets,” Candrea said.
“Like I told the girls yesterday, ‘So what? It’s going to be cold, it’s going to be rainy, but you have a game to play.’”
