Editor’s note: For more than three decades, the UA has been one of college softball’s best teams, making 23 Women’s College World Series appearances and winning eight national championships. The Star is re-living each of the WCWS trips.
2002: Cal gets in way of back-to-back titles for Arizona
What went down: Arizona just didn’t have enough power to rack up its seventh Women’s College World Series title. Cal upended the Wildcats in the final, 6-0.
The game marked the 10th all-Pac-10 final in WCWS history, with Arizona playing in eight of them. The Wildcats faced Cal four previous times in the WCWS and won every game.
This time, the No. 4-seeded Golden Bears broke through.
No. 2-seeded Arizona beat Nebraska, ASU and Florida State to advance to the final. It wasn’t easy. The ASU game — a 1-0 victory in eight innings — was delayed by rain and resumed the next morning. The teams endured another delay — this one was 23 minutes long — before the eighth inning. Mackenzie Vandergeest hit into a fielder’s choice, bringing home Lovie Jung for the game-winner.
Jennie Finch (34-6) held the Sun Devils to one hit, struck out nine and walked two for her third consecutive shutout in the WCWS.
It took the Wildcats 11 innings to put away Florida State 6-2. Finch put UA up with a solo homer in the 11th and Jackie Coburn (four RBIs) added a three-run shot. Finch threw 196 pitches and notched 17 strikeouts against Florida State.
Against Cal, however, Finch ran out of gas. She said she had trouble finding the zone and her control.
Finch wasn’t the only one. In all four WCWS games, Arizona (55-12) was just 2 for 24 with runners in scoring position. They hit only .156 overall.
Cal’s Jocelyn Forest (29-12) struck out eight, including the last four batters, and gave up only one hit. UA had only five baserunners — one reached on an error — and Jung walked three times.
Cal scored all six runs in the top of hte seventh, taking advantage of a UA error and walks.
From the archives: The Star’s Brian J. Pedersen wrote that Cal was destined to win it all. All it took was one bad inning for Arizona to get derailed:
UA coach Mike Candrea called Cal a team of destiny afterward. The Golden Bears reached the WCWS after surviving a regional in Fresno, CA, that included Pac-10 foe Stanford, host Fresno State and highly-ranked Cal State Fullerton.
Arizona’s 19th appearance in the national final was unlike any other, as the Wildcats lost by more than three runs for the first time since 1989. Since then, all but one elimination- or title-game loss had been by a 1-0 score.
“To get this far and to fail is hard,” said Candrea, who worked wonders this season with a roster that had eight freshman and just two seniors. “I think as a coach you can’t ask any more than what this team gave us all week. We played a team of destiny.”
He said it: “If we don’t win the whole thing, people ask me what went wrong.” — Candrea, on others interpreting non-championship seasons as a disappointment
After OKC: Finch played in two national championship games, winning one. She set numerous records along the way, and finished her college career with a 119-16 record. She was first in program history in strikeouts, shutouts and innings pitched while ranking in the top 10 in most other pitching categories. Finch’s batting made her a dual threat. She ended up in Arizona’s career top-10 in home runs, RBIs and walks. She went 32-0 in 2001, a season that is still considered among the best in NCAA history. She had a 60-game winning streak that ran across three seasons.
Finch won gold (2004) and silver (2008) medals in the Olympics. In the 2004 Games, she struck out 13 batters in eight innings while giving up only one hit, one walk and no runs.
Finch played for the Chicago Bandits in the National Pro Fastpitch (NPF) League where she pitched two perfect games. She still holds the NPF records in career WHIP and is in the top 10 all-time in strikeouts, ERA, strikeout ratio and fielding percentage.
Finch is a member of the UA and USA Softball halls of fame.
The big number: 5. Cal’s victory made for five different champions in as many years. Arizona and UCLA were no longer winning titles every season as they had in the past.
“I definitely believe there is parity in this country, and it’s great for softball,” Cal coach Diane Ninemire said. “Great players are developing all over and they’re splitting up where they are going to school.”
