A unique year calls for unique solutions.
The No. 2-ranked Arizona Wildcats, boasting a 10-0 record and ranked that high for the first time since 2017, open their most rigorous road trip in years. Starting Saturday, the team will play six games in seven days across the state of Florida.
The trip begins in Tampa with games against USA National Team coach Ken Erickson’s South Florida Bulls (3-4) at 11 a.m. Saturday and Sunday. Then, the Wildcats travel roughly 100 miles to play No. 22 Central Florida (10-2) at 1 p.m. Monday in Orlando. They have Tuesday off before heading 270 miles to Tallahassee for the final two stops, a lone game at Florida A&M (0-4) at 3 p.m. Wednesday and a three-game series at 2018 national champion, No. 16 Florida State (10-3) on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The games against FSU start at 4 p.m. each day.
With prestigious tournaments canceled due to COVID-19, particularly the annual Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic in Cathedral City, California, Arizona had to get creative with its nonconference schedule. So what was once just a three-game series Florida State ballooned into quite a demanding week.
“We just started grabbing some games,” coach Mike Candrea said. “It just made sense when we went on that trip that we’d go to (Erickson’s) place and play them a couple of times since they were available. Then, being so close to Orlando, it was a given that we’d try to get Central Florida and that worked out well. Then, Florida A&M is right down the street from Florida State.”
The Wildcats are also looking to build some team camaraderie. This will serve as their only extended road trip, as conference play begins the following weekend with a four-game series at Washington.
“It was nice having these past two weekends at home just to get our confidence up,” redshirt freshman Sharlize Palacios said. “Going on the road, what we’re going to mainly need to focus on is taking energy from each other. We need to keep focused on our goal. We’re not going to play the World Series here at home, so we’re going to need to be warriors on the road, too.”
The weather should provide good preparation for the Women’s College World Series as well. The temperatures are expected to be in the 80s for the series against FSU, with humidity at around 60%. It won’t be quite as sticky as June in Oklahoma City, but it will be an adjustment from the thin desert air.
Arizona coach Mike Candrea, talking to Hannah Martinez last year, has his team at 10-0 and ranked No. 2 heading into the longest road trip of the season.
Arizona’s sluggers, who have already hit 20 homers this season, will need a little extra oomph to get balls over the wall, and the pitchers, carrying a 0.95 ERA, will need to learn to trust their defense to avoid long innings in the heat.
“You can’t really prepare them for that because we don’t have humidity here to practice here,” Candrea said. “That’s one of the reasons why we’re going there. Hopefully, there are going to be some places down the road where humidity is a factor, Oklahoma City being one.”
