The first inning wasn’t easy for the pitchers on either team, but the No. 14 Arizona Wildcats found their groove on the way to a 12-2 victory over Long Beach State in five innings. Arizona wrapped up the Hillenbrand Invitational 5-0 and the preconference slate 17-5.
The Wildcats’ eight-run first inning set the tone. They sent 12 batters to the plate and used two bases-loaded walks, a couple seeing-eye singles to the shallow outfield, a fielder’s choice, and an error to rebound from an uncharacteristic
top of the inning.
Emma Kavanagh and Jenna Sniffen both hit home runs later in the game, but it was about the small things in the first inning.
Sydney Stewart drove in the first run on a bases-loaded walk. Grace Jenkins tied the game with a fielder’s choice, then Anyssa Wild loaded the bases again with a walk. That brought up Kavanagh, who earned the second bases-loaded walk of the inning to give Arizona the lead.
“I think we walked up with a plan to attack, but get our pitch in our zone, and it showed up,” Kavanagh said. “And even when we walked, I think we were really selecting the pitches that we wanted to put a good swing on, and if it wasn’t there, we weren’t going to pull the trigger on anything other than an ace-swing pitch, and it led to some big walks that we needed to get ahead.”
Kavanagh’s walk forced the Beach to make a pitching change ahead of Sniffen’s at-bat. It didn’t matter. She hit a bouncer over the head of the third baseman to push two more across.
It was the first hit of a 3-for-3 day with 4 RBI, 2 runs scored, a home run, and a stolen base for Sniffen. She raised her batting average from .176 to .250 over the five games this weekend.
After a passed ball and a single from Addison Duke put runners on the corners, the Wildcats implemented the double steal. LBSU catcher Audree Mendoza threw to second trying to get Duke and Sniffen was off for home for the seventh run of the inning.
Regan Shockey came up for her second at-bat of the inning and collected her second hit. This one came with an RBI.
“You don’t even look at the total runs,” Kavanagh said. “I think we go inning by inning, which is something big for us. They put up a two spot, and we’re able to put up an eight spot, and we feel like we took the momentum back.”
Freshman starter Rylie Holder ran into issues out of the gate. The first three Beach hitters reached on singles and put a run on the board. A sacrifice bunt drove in the second run. The Wildcats trailed 2-0 after LBSU’s offensive half. It was their first deficit of the five-game weekend.
Holder settled in after that. She ended the day with two earned runs on four hits in 4.0 innings. She struck out two.
Senior Jalen Adams came into a game that Arizona was set to run-rule for the second straight day. She pitched 1.0 innings without giving up a run or a hit. She struck out one. Neither Arizona pitcher issued a walk.
While it may seem like overkill to bring in an ace with your team up 12-2, Lowe said it’s how Arizona will operate in Big 12 play, so they are getting used to it now.
“We wanted to get them both time today, and it was just a matter of how we were going to do that, how many innings for each,” Lowe said. “I think they they’re starting to really pair together well, as far as the tools they come in with and being able to kind of shift the hitters’ look. So I think it’s something they’re going to have to be good at in conference…It’s not necessarily taking Rylie out of the game as much as getting Jalen the time she needs, too.”
Arizona wasn’t completely clean on defense. It had at least one error for the 11th time this season. However, there were some very nice double plays turned by the infield. Tayler Biehl started one to end the second. Sniffen started one with a tough fielding play to get the first two outs of the third.
“We work on balls like that every single day at practice, and our motto in the infield is kind of, we call it smother, and we basically just want to field aggressively,” Sniffen said. “So if we’re gonna fail, fail trying as as hard as we can, full force, like full lean-in.”
While the big offensive inning didn’t require any home runs, that didn’t mean Arizona wasn’t going to hit any. Kavanagh and Sniffen hit the 11th and 12th homers of the weekend for the Wildcats.
Kavanagh came up with two outs in the second inning. She worked the count full then sent the 2-run homer to center where it bounced off the wall. That put Arizona up 10-2 to make the run rule ending possible.
The hit tied Kavanagh with Jenkins for second on the team with five home runs. Stewart leads the club with six. When adding Biehl, the Wildcats have four players with at least four home runs.
Sniffen got some insurance runs in the fourth. She also hit the ball out to center field for a 2-run homer.
Sniffen and fellow Hawai’ian infielder Kez Lucas are tied with three home runs apiece. The only regular starters without at least one homer are Shockey and Sereniti Trice, who hit in the one and two holes.
