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.
2001: ‘We wanted the ring’: UA wins sixth WCWS title
What went down: The Wildcats were determined to get back to the championship game and win. And that’s exactly what happened, as UA beat rival UCLA 1-0 to claim its sixth Women’s College World Series title.
Inclement weather nearly halted the championshp game before it started. A thunderstorm and 60-mph winds knocked out power the night before the game and persisted the following day, finally clearing 90 minutes before No. 1 Arizona and No. 2 UCLA took the field.
Lindsey Collins crushed a solo home run to right-center field in the fourth inning, giving Arizona what it needed to collect another trophy.
On the mound, Jennie Finch was unstoppable. The WCWS Most Outstanding Player picked up her 19th shutout of the season. She finished 32-0 with a 0.54 ERA and surrendered only six home runs all season — four of them coming in the series.
Against UCLA, Finch struck out seven and walked two. The top five Bruins hitters went a combined 1 for 13.
The Wildcats beat Oklahoma, Cal and Stanford to advance to the title game. In the semifinal win over Stanford, Becky Lemke (19-2) gave up one hit and struck out five to pick up her eighth shutout of the season. Toni Mascarenas provided the power, hitting home runs in each of Arizona’s first three wins. She hit homers in four of the last five games, with three of them three-run shots.
Arizona finished the season 65-4 and hit an NCAA-record 126 home runs. The Wildcats also led the nation in fielding percentage (.981) and committed the fewest errors (34) in UA history.
Four Wildcats — Finch, Mascarenas, Collins and Nicole Giordano — made the all-tournament team.
From the archives: The Star’s Kristen Davis wrote that the win was extra special for the seniors, who hadn’t won a national title:
“You want every kid to have that opportunity to feel how great it feels to win a game like that in such a big moment in their life,” said (UA coach Mike) Candrea, who led UA to six titles in his 16 years as coach.
“The highlight of the weekend was sitting in the dugout watching them celebrate. That’s the picture that I keep in the back of my mind every day I go to practice and every day I work with a kid.”
… The title ensures that each recruiting class Candrea brought in from 1987 to 2001 has left with a national championship to its credit.
“Every year we are supposed to win. We had good teams all three years,” senior third baseman Mascarenas said. “Right after the game we looked at each other and kept jumping up and down by ourselves. We didn’t even run to each other. We didn’t know what to do. There’s nothing sweeter than right now.”
She said it: “We wanted the ring. Nothing compares to the national championship.” — Finch
The ’01 UA softball team from left to right clockwise, Erika Hanson (Barnes), Allison Andrade, Becky Lemke, Lindsey Collins, Teresa Demeter, Nicole Giordano, Toni Mascarenas and Lauren Bauer, opened the year 31-0 and finished on a 26-0 run to win the College World Series.
After OKC: Mascarenas was named Pac-10 Newcomer of the Year as a freshman, and was All-Pac-10 every year she played at Arizona. She was also a two-time All-American.
In 2001, Mascarenas hit 25 home runs, drove in 84 runs and posted a .845 slugging percentage. Finch wanted to share her Most Outstanding Player honors with her roommate, saying the UA wouldn’t have made it to the title game without her.
Mascarenas went on to coach 10 league and two CIF state softball championships at Mission Viejo High school in California. She now serves as an assistant coach at Santa Margarita Catholic High School and puts on youth camps with Finch. In May, Mascarenas was named to Arizona’s all-time lineup by the NCAA.
The big number: 26. Arizona finished the season on a 26-game winning streak.
