Kenzie Fowler kept the Creighton Bluejays off the scoreboard and off the bases for almost the entire game in an 8-0 Arizona win on Wednesday at Hillenbrand Stadium.
The sophomore ace for the No. 4 Wildcats had a perfect game going through 4.1 innings before Creighton (7-10) first baseman Sammy Snygg hit a slow roller to second base. Snygg made it to first safely, giving the Bluejays their first and only hit of the ball game.
Fowler (13-1) finished with whiffed seven, bringing her total to 100 on the still young season. Fowler currently leads all Pacific 10 Conference pitchers in strikeout category.
“”(She) threw a great game,”” head coach Mike Candrea said. “”She’s at a point where she needs to ramp up some innings.””
On the offensive side, the Wildcats (20-2) were helped by two illegal pitch calls on Creighton’s Becca Changstrom (4-5). One call brought in an Arizona run in the second inning.
Arizona started off the game with a run in the bottom of the first inning when third baseman Brigette Del Ponte hit an RBI double to score center fielder Lauren Schutzler, who reached base on a bunt.
The Wildcats added three runs in the bottom of the second with help from an error, the aforementioned illegal pitch and left fielder Brittany Lastrapes’ RBI single.
Arizona wouldn’t add any runs again until the sixth inning. The Wildcats scored two before catcher Stacie Chambers stepped up to the plate with a runner on. Chambers had gotten off to a slow start, striking out twice and walking in her first three at-bats. That all would change, though, when she took Bluejays reliever Brittany Telecky yard on the second pitch she saw, giving Arizona the run-rule victory.
“”Stacie made a couple adjustments,”” Candrea said. “”She looked like she had no clue the first two at-bats. She got her eyes down a little bit.””
Chambers added that the late-game changes helped her in the final at-bat.
“”I need to be able to make adjustments sooner than that though,”” Chambers said. “”Better late than never, I guess.””
Extra Bases
- Chambers is nine homers away from the Arizona home run record and 14 from the all-time NCAA record.
- Senior Victoria Kemp got her first hit of the year on Wednesday with a single to left field in the sixth inning. Kemp has been recovering from a torn posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) she suffered before the season started.