One glove is a symbol of excellence. The other is her most essential tool.
Allie Skaggs will allow you to get your mitts on the former. That’s her Rawlings Gold Glove. It’s not actually metal, it turns out. It’s a leather glove, spray-painted gold, and it’s removable from its base. Together, they form the Gold Glove trophy the Arizona second baseman earned in 2023 when she pulled off a phenomenal feat — going through an entire season, as a middle infielder, without making an error.
Michael Lev
Skaggs could use the Gold Glove in a game if she wanted to, but that’s not going to happen. No reason to get it dirty. Besides, the other glove, her game glove, that’s the truly useful one. She wouldn’t have the Gold Glove without the game glove. So, of course, she treats it with the utmost care.
“I hate when a glove gets smushed or stuffed in a bag,” Skaggs says. “I used to do that with mine. Now, looking back, like in high school, I have no clue how I used to just shove it in my helmet.
“I hold it. Everywhere I go. I'll take it with me on the bus. Through the airport, you'll see me walk around with it on my head. ...
Arizona senior second baseman Allie Skaggs poses with her Rawlings Gold Glove in the dugout at Hillenbrand Stadium on Jan. 30, 2024. Skaggs did not commit an error in 168 chances as a junior in 2023.
“I don't let people put their hand in it. I get really picky about it. I'll let one of our managers do the strings and retie it. But I'm just a stickler for, don't put your hand in it, don't stretch it out, any of that stuff.”
Skaggs values her glove because she values her glove work more than ever before. Not that it wasn’t a point of emphasis or part of her routine prior to last season. It’s just that when you’re known as a hitter, and you’re exceptionally good at it, that’s the thing.
Skaggs described her typical workout before the summer of 2022 as “hit, hit, hit, hit, hit” and take groundballs “here and there.” But she wasn’t happy with her defense. She made 13 errors that season. She never felt comfortable in the field.
“I was anxious all the time,” Skaggs says. “I didn't trust fully what I was doing.”
After the ’22 Women’s College World Series, Skaggs told her father, Jim, that she wanted to make the Pac-12 All-Defensive Team.
Arizona second baseman Allie Skaggs, shown fielding a grounder vs. Cal on May 6, 2023, did not commit an error during the regular season in earning the Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year award.
She ended up as the league’s Defensive Player of the Year.
Here’s the story of how Allie Skaggs transformed herself from a deluxe hitter into a great all-around player, one grounder at a time.
Deliberate approach
Skaggs, her coaches and her teammates used the following adjectives to describe her errorless season: incredible, unheard-of, remarkable, crazy, exceptional, special, awesome, cool and amazing.
Here’s another one: purposeful.
Skaggs approached the summer of 2022 with deliberation and determination. She knew she could take her defense to another level. She knew what it would take to get there. With help from her team, she made it happen.
“She's just made a commitment to the defensive side of her game that she never did before,” says UA assistant coach Lauren Lappin, a two-time Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year at Stanford who coaches Arizona’s infielders.
Skaggs recalled the day that summer when she told her dad about her defensive goals.
“I'm just competitive in that sense,” says Skaggs, who earned second-team All-Pac-12 honors in ’22 after leading the league with 24 home runs — overshadowing her 13 fielding miscues.
“I was like, ‘That can't happen again. ... I'm gonna take my defense extremely seriously.’ So I probably took more groundballs that summer than I hit, which has never happened before.”
Skaggs regularly hit the field at Hillenbrand Stadium by 6:30 or 7 a.m. to beat the heat. She’d take anywhere from 50-100 grounders a day — 10-15 right at her, 10-15 to her left, 10-15 to her right, 10-15 slapper chops, 10-15 double-play turns.
Lappin emphasized rhythm and pace — reading hops and deciding whether to attack or retreat.
Over time — countless repetitions — Skaggs went from uneasy to unflappable.
“That comes with presence and confidence because of the work you put in,” Lappin says. “What are the little things that we can do to identify a play, the spin of a ball, the pace of a ball, to put ourselves in a position to make a great play on it?”
Known for her offense before last season, Arizona second baseman Allie Skaggs devoted herself to becoming a better defender — and earned a Rawlings Gold Glove for her efforts.
In Skaggs’ view, it was simply a matter of “trusting my glove.” That trust had eroded during the ’22 season.
“In my head, I don't know why, I just had this voice that was like, ‘Uh-oh, it's coming to you now.’ Instead of just being expectant of it. That's what we always pride ourselves on with the infield: Expect the ball and know exactly what you're gonna do with it,” Skaggs says.
“Last year, I wasn't stressed at all pre-pitch. I calmed down my posture a little bit. I wasn't as tense before the pitch came. I was like, ‘Let's just react to the ball.’ I honestly just allowed myself to feel more comfortable and tried to be a little more athletic instead of forceful with my moves.
“It was a big mental block. Having last year was nice. I just remember being on the field ... I did not feel any sort of pressure at all. I was like, ‘Any ball that comes to me, I have the glove work to do it.’ ”
Motivated, prepared
Skaggs always has been self-motivated. Her parents made sure of that.
'Last year, I wasn't stressed at all pre-pitch,' UA second baseman Allie Skaggs says. 'I calmed down my posture a little bit. I wasn't as tense before the pitch came. I was like, "Let's just react to the ball." '
It was up to her to tell them when she wanted to take batting practice or field groundballs, not the other way around.
“They were involved, but they didn't really try and coach me,” Skaggs says of parents Jim and Michelle.
“I never really had those terrible car rides home after I had a bad game. I'm sure they probably wanted to say some stuff, especially my dad, because he's a super-competitive guy.”
Jim played basketball growing up; Michelle played volleyball. Both attended Flowing Wells High School, Pima Community College and the UA.
Allie and older brother Ben, who played club ice hockey at Miami (Ohio), grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, where Jim was an executive for GE Appliances. The family moved back to Tucson for Allie’s senior year of high school, which she spent at Ironwood Ridge. Skaggs already was committed to Arizona at that point.
Future teammate Devyn Netz also transferred to Ironwood Ridge for her senior year. She and Skaggs played together for the So Cal Athletics club team. Skaggs couldn’t have been better prepared to start her UA career.
Skaggs was the most prolific batter in the history of Ballard High School in Louisville, and she hit .483 with five home runs in 10 games at Ironwood Ridge before the season was canceled because of the pandemic.
After spending her freshman year at Arizona as a backup, Skaggs blew up as a sophomore. Her 24 home runs were fifth most in the country. She batted .367 with a 1.259 OPS.
That was all well and good, but Skaggs wanted more. She didn’t want to be labeled as just an elite offensive player.
“There's very few players in the country who are elite on both sides of the ball where it would be hard to choose which one they're better at,” Lappin says. “When you're so well known as an offensive powerhouse, you’re never talked about as a defender. She was never talked about as a defender before last year. So now, to have that in your back pocket, is cool.”
Arizona second baseman Allie Skaggs gets the defense straight with right fielder Tayler Biehl between pitches in the first inning against Cal in their Pac-12 softball game at Hillenbrand Stadium on May 6, 2023.
As a Gold Glove winner, Skaggs has a different look and aura about her, according to Lappin.
“Because I don't think it's something that anyone ever expected her to get,” she says.
‘Moving on’
UA coach Caitlin Lowe was named Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year as a Wildcat senior. She didn’t win a Gold Glove because they weren’t presented to softball players until 2022.
“I could not be more jealous,” Lowe says, smiling. “That's the coolest thing ever. I love that we crossed over and we are doing it in softball now.”
Skaggs was part of the second class of softball Gold Glove winners. The first second baseman to win one, Florida’s Hannah Adams, also posted a perfect fielding percentage. Adams had 161 chances; Skaggs had 168.
Her errorless streak became a topic of conversation toward the end of the season. But it wasn’t treated like an in-progress no-hitter, like some taboo subject no one could bring up.
Arizona senior second baseman Allie Skaggs, showing off her Rawlings Gold Glove, knows she won't make it through another season without committing an error, and she's OK with that.
Even now, Skaggs isn’t worried about jinxing it. She has accepted the reality that her errorless streak will come to an end.
“I would be absolutely amazed and I would have to hang ’em up if I went another season without making one,” says Skaggs, who made it through the first five games of this season error-free. “It's a very cool accomplishment. But it's not something that I feel like someone should get used to.”
“I expect her to make an error,” Lappin says. “If it's going to happen, I hope it's early because then it's like, ‘Moving on.’
“I just want her to focus on playing with the presence she's been playing with, and the rest will come.”
The Wildcats set a program record with a .985 fielding percentage last season. As a group, they’re striving to be even better. Even a repeat performance could produce another Gold Glove winner.
At one point during the offseason, Skaggs removed the spray-painted glove from her trophy, replaced it with her game glove and took a picture of it.
“Because that,” she says, “is the real Gold Glove.”
Skaggs knows the origin of her glove story.
