It’s mid-semester, and Krista Martinez was just finishing up a class when she received a phone call.
It was Lauren Lappin, assistant coach for the eight-time National Champion Arizona Wildcats softball program; Lappin wanted to know if Martinez was interested in joining the Wildcats for the rest of the 2024 season.
Martinez was just a regular student in her freshman year at the UA when she got the call.
“Honestly, no, I never would have thought if you would have told me four months ago, ‘You’re gonna be playing (for) Arizona softball,” Martinez said. “I would not have believed you.”
Martinez, focused on her studies, actually took a few days to say “yes, of course” she would like to be a Wildcat. (Maybe she also wanted to confirm that the offer was real.)
“It’s kind of crazy. I’ve never heard of an opportunity like this happening to anyone else,” she said. “I’m just really blessed to be a part of this program and this tradition.”
Martinez
Martinez was brought on to help the team in pinch running situations and give a little more depth in the middle infield after a rash of injuries for the No. 21 Wildcats in the early portion of the 2024 schedule.
Martinez, who made her debut as pinch runner during the series opener at Stanford last weekend, and Arizona (22-11-1) take on Utah (20-15) this weekend in Salt Lake City. With bad weather expected Saturday, the teams will play a doubleheader Friday starting at 9 a.m., with the second game starting 30 minutes after the first one ends. The third game will be played as scheduled Sunday at 11 a.m. The games will be livestreamed.
Martinez’ name may sound familiar to local softball fans as she won three consecutive Class 4A Arizona state championships with Salpointe Catholic High School and was a first-team All-Southern Arizona player. She batted .372 in 231 at bats, hitting 22 home runs and drive in 87 runs over her three-plus seasons of varsity softball for the Lancers.
Salpointe Catholic's Krista Martinez (77) makes contact in the bottom of the fourth inning in the first round of the Arizona Class 4A high school softball state playoff matchup between Salpointe and Scottsdale Notre Dame Prep in Tucson on April 30, 2022.
Martinez is now the seventh Wildcat who played high school ball in and around Tucson. She joins Devyn Netz (Ironwood Ridge), Allie Skaggs (Ironwood Ridge), Blaise Biringer (Cienega), Carlie Scupin (Tucson High), Zaedi Tagalog (Canyon del Oro), Aissa Silva (Mountain View) and Logan Cole (Salpointe).
Cole and Martinez were teammates at Salpointe and played travel ball together. Martinez’ dad, Jimmy, was a coach for Impact Gold, the first club team Cole played on.
Cole is one of the injured Wildcats that Martinez will help fill in for. Cole had been playing with a torn labrum before tearing her rotator cuff. After surgery six weeks ago, she is starting physical therapy and is hoping for a four-month recovery but knows it could be up to 10 months. She just got her sling off this week.
“We’re hoping to get better as soon as possible and get back on the field,” Cole said. “It was a struggle. I mean, before I got the surgery, it was I would brush my hair and after a while I’m like, ‘Wow, my arm hurts.’ I would brush my teeth and my arm would go numb sometimes.
“(After surgery) I am able to do my daily activities with my arm. I can’t really throw a ball yet but we’re getting there.”
The injuries have piled up for the Wildcats this season. Besides Cole, four others are out: outfielder Paige Dimler and pitchers Netz, Brooke Mannon and Sydney Somerndike.
Dimler with an injury to her hand that will be x-rayed after the “three or four week mark, so we aren’t there yet” UA coach Caitlin Lowe said.
Mannon is day-to-day and Lowe said the Wildcats probably won’t have the services of Netz and Somerndike this season.
After hearing about Martinez from Cole and others, Lowe said that it was “a no brainer” to add her as a walk-on.
Asked what Martinez brings to the Wildcats: “Speed, man,” Lowe said.
“Speed and depth, which is much needed right now,” Lowe said. “I just think we were looking for an extra runner off the bench, a little depth in the middle infield and she just lights up a room when she walks into it.”
Like the other Wildcats who are locals, Martinez grew up going to games at Hillenbrand Stadium and cheering on her favorites. She rattled off some of those players including, Lowe, Alicia Hollowell and Brigette Del-Ponte.
“I grew up a huge Wildcat fan,” Martinez said. “I wanted to be just like the players on the field and it’s crazy, now I am one.”
Inside Pitch
Down so many pitchers, the Wildcats have relied heavily on grad students Ali Blanchard and Miranda Stoddard.
Lowe said that Blanchard and Stoddard especially have been “warriors.”
“(They) have taken on that role so gracefully and put us into so many games where we have a chance to win,” Lowe said.
“I cannot say enough about how they’ve worked this year, not only in their pen not only with (UA assistant) Christian (Conrad) but with his team to give us chances. I think if you probably asked Miranda, she would have been like ‘You’re crazy that I’ve got this many innings and all of the things’ but she’s done it so gracefully and just embraced that role with intensity and determination to win. I can’t say enough about them.”
VIDEO: Ahead of the start of her team’s 2024 season, Arizona softball coach Caitlin Lowe speaks on Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024 on the dominance the Pac-12, in its final season of its current iteration, has had in softball over the decades and its role in growing the sport. (Courtesy Arizona Athletics)
