The No. 2 Arizona softball team enjoyed a successful start to its postseason by sweeping the Tucson Regional at Hillenbrand Stadium over the weekend, which will move them to next weekend’s super regionals in the process.

The Wildcats (47-9) defeated Auburn (36-22) 4-2 to become the regional champions yesterday after winning against Ohio State (39-23) 6-3 Friday and run-ruling Marist (33-13) 9-0 Thursday in six innings.

“”That’s what we came here to do,”” Arizona head coach Mike Candrea said. “”Anything less would have been real disappointing. More importantly, I’m proud of the progress we are making.””

In the clincher against Auburn, sophomore pitcher Taryne Mowatt took a perfect game into the fifth inning when she gave up a home run to Auburn junior designated player Sara Ghezzi. Mowatt, who was dominant throughout the game, giving up only two runs on three hits while striking out 11 in her complete game effort.

“”It’s great to give (senior ace) Alicia (Hollowell) some rest,”” Mowatt said. “”We’ve got super regionals next weekend, so for her to rest on a hot day was perfect.””

Hollowell pitched just as well in her two outings of the weekend, giving up only three runs in 13 innings of work.

“”It was huge for us today that Taryne finished that game,”” Candrea said. “”For us to get where we really want to go we’re going to have to count on two (pitchers), and I think it was important for her to be able to get out of a jam.

“”I’m hoping this will jumpstart Taryne. She did a good job of shutting them down early and we did a good job of putting some runs on the board.””

On the offensive side, the Wildcats used the long ball to their advantage over the weekend, hitting five home runs in the three games.

Both junior second baseman Chelsie Mesa and sophomore catcher Callista Balko hit two home runs, and junior shortstop Kristie Fox added a homer of her own.

In yesterday’s win, Mesa’s two-run home run in the top of the fourth put Arizona ahead for good. In the fifth, Balko’s RBI groundout followed Fox’s RBI single to give the Wildcats a lead the Tigers could not overcome.

“”It just feels good to help out my team,”” Mesa said. “”It feels good just to pick myself out of my slump, and it’s good confidence-wise, so it felt really good.

“”I think we had a good tournament here this weekend. A lot of people were saying that we had it easy, but we played some good teams, so we had to come out here and play our game.””

The Wildcats will likely host a super regional next weekend at Hillenbrand Stadium against the winner of the Region 7 Tournament, which would be No. 15 Louisiana State (53-12) if they don’t get upset twice by Louisiana-Lafayette (50-11) today.

But with a No. 2 overall seed, the team has confidence.

“”I’m just really pleased with the way we played,”” Candrea said. “”Overall, in the last three weeks, I’m very, very pleased with what I see. The whole mentality of this team has changed tremendously, and it will continue to grow.””