Behind Hanah Bowen's shutout, No. 9 Arizona bounces back to beat New Mexico

After being rocked by Alabama a night earlier, Arizona softball pitcher Hanah Bowen dug deep and delivered a pitching performance to save the Wildcats from a nightmare end to the season-opening Candrea Classic.

Arizona topped New Mexico 1-0 Sunday, behind Bowen’s two-hit complete-game shutout. Bowen had four strikeouts as she marched her way through the same Lobos lineup that beat Oregon State and plated three runs against No. 2 Alabama on Saturday. Arizona’s win came after suffering a run-rule loss to the Crimson Tide on Saturday night. The Wildcats improved to 3-1, while the Lobos fell to 2-2.

“I had a better mix today and had better command, focusing more on movement and spin rather than blowing it past them,” Bowen said. “Last night was definitely a bummer. It was not my best stuff.

“Everyone was a little flat today but worked with what we had and did what we needed to do.”

Unlike Bowen, Arizona’s offense struggled to bounce back following Saturday’s 11-0 five-inning loss.

Last year’s ace, senior Emma Guindon, kept the Wildcats off-balance, tallying just one strikeout over seven innings but feasting on soft grounders and pop ups. Carlie Scupin had the only truly hard-hit ball, to deep right center, but New Mexico center fielder Andrea Howard snagged it at the wall.

“We’re experiencing that uncomfortable feeling where we don’t feel our best at the plate, and we have to figure out a way to execute no matter what,” first-year coach Caitlin Lowe said.

Arizona scratched across its first run by showing some hustle on back-to-back two-out grounders in the third inning. With Sophia Carroll at second, Jasmine Perezchica drilled a ball at New Mexico third baseman Emma Branson. The ball skipped off Branson’s glove and landed in the grasp of Briana Martinez, while Carroll slid past before Martinez could apply the tag.

Then, on a bouncer up the middle by Sharlize Palacios, Perezchica narrowly beat Martinez’s throw to second while Carroll scored.

“Just finding a way to get it across no matter how it happened,” Palacios said.

The lone run proved to be enough, but it did provide some nervy moments.

New Mexico first baseman Olivia Birkinshaw drilled a leadoff double in the seventh inning, but Bowen responded by getting a soft popup to shortstop. Then, Carroll was in the right spot at the right time to snag a line drive right at her shortstop position, and Bowen got a lazy popup in foul territory to end the game.

It might not have played out how the Wildcats had hoped, but a 3-1 performance, with the only loss to a national title contender, won’t haunt them going forward.

“The win today felt pretty good,” Lowe said. “I care most about responses in life. If you get knocked down, how are you going to respond? How are you going to come up and not let it happen again? I thought that was a big deal for Bowen and a big deal for our team today.”