The Arizona Wildcats will open their season Friday at the Kajikawa Classic in Tempe in a much different place.
“Not that we don’t feel like we still have to prove ourselves this year, but last year, we were still trying to prove ourselves,” sophomore Izzy Pacho said. “This year, we can go in knowing that we belong, and we have a bigger target on our back.”
For anyone who follows college softball, that’s an odd thing to hear.
After all, the Wildcats, along with reigning national champion UCLA, are considered royalty in the sport. The programs have combined to win 20 of the 37 national titles since 1982, when the NCAA added softball, and Arizona’s 23 Women’s College World Series appearances trail only UCLA’s 29 on the all-time list. Add in that Arizona is still coached by Mike Candrea, who enters his 34th season five wins shy of Michigan’s Carol Hutchins for the all-time lead, and it’s obvious why there are sky-high expectations for this year, just like any other.
“We have a very good nucleus back that has been at the world series and knows what it is going to take to stay there even longer,” Candrea said. “Our goal is to play the last game of the season. That has not changed and will never change.”
However, failing to meet those expectations built up angst within the program in recent years.
The Wildcats went nearly an entire decade without touching the dirt at ASA Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City. In that sense, last year’s trip to the Women’s College World Series, the first since 2010, brought relief. For as much as Arizona was still a national power to be reckoned with, averaging a 42-18 record over the eight-year drought, its continued absence puzzled not only fans and media but players as well.
Head coach Mike Candrea watches his players batting during a practice at Hillenbrand Stadium on January 23, 2020.
Ranked No. 5, Arizona has every reason to consider itself a national title contender heading into Friday’s season-opening doubleheader against Kansas at 12:30 p.m. and Seattle at 5 p.m. The Wildcats are the highest-ranked team in the tournament followed by No. 12 Tennessee and No. 22 Arizona State. They will not face their in-state rival until conference play, but take on the Volunteers at 4:30 p.m. Sunday following back-to-back games against Portland State and Western Michigan on Saturday at 9 a.m.
Every year starts with some sense of optimism. There are plenty of storylines that should get fans excited for this upcoming spring, including senior Alyssa Dunham and Oklahoma transfer Mariah Lopez’s pitching tandem, senior Jessie Harper’s chase for the home run record, and the last go-around for stalwarts Alyssa Palomino-Cardozo, Reyna Carranco and Malia Martinez. But for Arizona, as a program, nothing meant more than repaving that road to Oklahoma City in 2019.
“We know we can get there,” junior Ivy Davis said. “We know we have what it takes to get there, and we know what it feels like to be there, which is a big part of it. So I think that helps.”
