For the second straight day, the No. 19 Arizona Wildcats failed to find success against Utah pitcher Hailey Maestretti. Maestretti kept the Arizona bats in check through seven innings on Saturday then returned 24 hours later to throw a five-hitter on Sunday. The six-inning 10-2 Utah victory secured a spot in the Big 12 Tournament for the Utes and dropped Arizona to the three seed after Oklahoma State beat Kansas in Stillwater.
That three seed will be a problem for Arizona. With the elimination of
the bottom three teams from the conference tournament, the six seed will not play the 11 seed on the opening day of the tournament while No. 3 waits in the wings. Instead, Arizona State and a rested Kenzie Brown will be waiting for the Wildcats on the opening day of the tournament. The Sun Devils will not have to decide whether to pitch their ace against the No. 11 seed but can walk out on day one and throw her against the No. 3 seed.
Arizona could have avoided all the drama simply by winning the series against Utah, which was in danger of not making the tournament when the series started. Oklahoma State had to win one more game than Arizona did to leapfrog the Wildcats in the standings. The two ended the season tied at 16-8 but the Cowgirls won the series between the two last month.
When Kansas run-ruled the Cowgirls on Saturday, it put the pressure on OSU to win on Sunday and it still needed help from Arizona. The Wildcats more than obliged.
The Utes locked up their spot in Oklahoma City when Iowa State lost to UCF earlier in the day. Even if they lost, their tie against UCF earlier in the season would have them ahead of the Cyclones in conference winning percentage. But it was still senior day and pride was on the line. They rose to the occasion.
Despite winning 6-1 on Friday, Arizona’s bats didn’t look overly dangerous. The Wildcats took advantage of five Utah errors to score their six runs. The Utes cleaned up their defense on Saturday and Sunday while Maestretti shut down the Wildcat bats.
It wasn’t the first time, though. While Arizona knocked the cover off the ball last weekend, those games came at home against last-place Houston. The Wildcats have struggled on the road in conference play. With the series loss to Utah, they end the regular season with only one series win on the road. That was the 2-1 series win against an Iowa State team that finished ninth in the 11-team league.
Arizona scored 7 or more runs in 30 of its 35 wins. It scored six runs in three more. It had just two wins all year when scoring less than six runs.
That becomes a more difficult proposition when facing better pitching. The Utah pitching staff had a staff ERA of 2.73 overall but that rose to 4.48 against Big 12 teams. The Utes’ pitchers ranked sixth in the league for staff ERA in conference games.
Arizona made them look much better than that.
Utah struggled with offense for most of the season, but that wasn’t the case when Arizona came to town. The Utes came into the series ranked 10th in the league with just 16 home runs. That was exactly half of what the Wildcats had hit.
Utah went yard against Wildcat pitchers five times, including three times in the deciding game. Kennedy Proctor had three of those home runs. She left the park twice on Sunday. Arizona hit just one home run all week, the solo shot by Sydney Stewart on Saturday that represented the Wildcats’ lone run.
The Utes just improved as the weekend progressed. They scored their 10 runs on 10 hits, four walks, a hit batter, and an Arizona error in the final game. Four of the hits went for extra bases.
The Wildcats used three pitchers on Sunday. They all struggled.
Jalen Adams got the start. She went four complete innings then faced one batter in the bottom of the fifth. She gave up five earned runs on six hits, a walk, and a hit batter. Two of the six hits were home runs. She took the loss to end the regular season 20-8 with a 3.38 ERA.
It was a big drop from Adams’ outing on Friday night as far as results, but there were signs that the Utes could break through even in that game. She held them to one run in 7.0 IP in the series opener. However, she allowed 12 baserunners on six hits, five walks, and a HBP. She ended the weekend with 26 hit batters in the regular season.
After Adams surrendered a leadoff home run in the fifth, the coaches opted to replace her with Jenae Berry. Berry gave up two runs in 4.2 innings against the Utes on Saturday, so they had seen her a lot and had solid success against her. That continued.
Berry pitched just one inning, although she faced two hitters in the sixth without retiring either. She faced a total of eight batters. Five reached base on three hits and two walks, leading to four earned runs in 1.0 IP.
Utah had an opportunity to close out the game in the fifth inning. The leadoff home run by Proctor put them up 5-0. That’s when Adams was pulled.
Berry entered the game with no outs and no one on base, but her team was in a big hole. A double, a single, and a walk loaded the bases. There was still no one out and the game-winning run was on first.
A sacrifice fly inched the Utes closer to a run-rule victory. They led 6-0 with runners on the corners. There was one out, but the runner at second had moved up on the sac fly. A second sacrifice fly pushed that run across, too. Utah was now one run away from the mercy rule victory, but there were two outs.
The Utes couldn’t get the game-ending run across in the fifth, but everything still pointed to an early victory.
The Wildcats’ offense finally showed a hint of life in the sixth when their backs were against the wall. Stewart came through with a two-out double to end the shutout.
Tele Jennings hit one back to the circle that Maestretti couldn’t control. The single put runners on the corners, but even that hit wasn’t a result of a dominant at-bat. Tayler Biehl followed with another infield single to knock in Stewart from third base.
Arizona needed some luck to keep things going, and they got a little bit, but it stopped at two runs. Utah needed three runs to end the game in the bottom of the sixth.
The offense didn’t spill over into the defensive and pitching effort. Berry allowed the first two Utes to reach on a walk and an infield single. That ended her outing, bringing in freshman Rylie Holder.
Holder started Saturday’s game against Utah. The Utes saw her very well, racking up nine hits in 2.1 IP. They turned those into three earned runs.
She had some trouble on Sunday, too, but she also had some bad luck. Holder induced a lineout from her first batter, but a throwing error by third baseman Jenna Sniffen allowed the two inherited runners to move up. Both were in scoring position.
A sacrifice fly scored the first run. Utah needed two more to end the game. A walk put both of those runs on base, then a single drove them in. Arizona challenged the second run on the play at the plate, but the tag was late. Game over.
For the second straight day, the top of Arizona’s order struggled to get on base. Regan Shockey tried to use the power slap in several of her at-bats, but she couldn’t find the outfield grass. She ended with an 0-for-3 day but reached on a fielder’s choice and scored a run. Sereniti Trice was 0-for-2 and was hit by a pitch.
The middle of the order went 4-for-12 with Stewart, Jennings, Biehl, and Grace Jenkins each securing one hit. The only other hit was a single by nine-hole hitter Addison Duke.
Arizona must find its bats quickly. While the Wildcats won the regular season series against ASU 2-1, things are very different in a single-elimination tournament.
The closest thing to a silver lining is that a loss to the Sun Devils ultimately won’t hurt anything but Arizona’s pride. The Wildcats have already played themselves out of the hosting conversation but a loss to a top 25 RPI team shouldn’t knock it out of the top 32, which get seeded. Moving down might even help by getting them out of the way of the top seed if they can advance to super regionals.
