After the No. 4 Arizona softball team suffered its first loss to No. 9 ASU since 2002 on Friday, the team bounced back in a big way, shutting out the Sun Devils on Saturday.
The Wildcats (32-7, 3-4 Pacific 10 Conference) blanked ASU (39-6, 3-3) 3-0 on Saturday after falling 4-2 in 10 innings on Friday at Farrington Stadium, which sold out for both games.
Sophomore pitcher Taryne Mowatt led Arizona’s attack both at the plate and on the mound Saturday. Mowatt (16-4) threw a complete game, while giving up only three hits and one walk and striking out 11 en route to her first career Pac-10 shutout.
Mowatt also got the job done offensively, as she went 2-for-3 with two runs scored and hit her second home run of the season in the top of the fourth inning, which put the Wildcats on top by the eventual final margin of 3-0.
Senior pitcher Desiree Serrano (15-3) took the loss for ASU, as Arizona roughed her up in her 3 1/3 innings of work, compiling three runs on three hits and three walks.
Freshman right fielder Jill Malina had her first collegiate plate appearance, and she got an RBI in her first at-bat, as she was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to drive in Arizona’s first run.
On a Friday night with winds up to 35 mph, Arizona was within an inning of a series-opening win. Alicia Hollowell started the game for Arizona, and the senior ace had a shutout going into the seventh inning until she gave up a pinch-hit two-run home run to junior first baseman Sharee Zaleski, which tied the game 2-2.
After Arizona was unable to score in the first three extra innings, ASU sophomore shortstop Rhiannon Baca hit a game-winning, two-run home run in the bottom of the tenth inning off Hollowell (16-3).
Arizona’s only runs of the game came in the top of the first when junior shortstop Kristie Fox hit her seventh home run of the year. Her two-run home run brought in senior left fielder Autumn Champion, who reached base on an error one batter before Fox.
ASU sophomore pitcher Katie Burkhart (18-3) recorded 22 strikeouts in the victory.
Hollowell was charged with the loss after pitching 9 1/3 innings, giving up four runs on six hits, while striking out 15 and walking four.
Notes
Arizona head coach Mike Candrea put in All-American junior center fielder Caitlin Lowe to pinch-run on Friday. It was her first game action since she broke a bone in her hand sliding into first base on March 19. … Sophomore walk-on second baseman Danielle Rodriguez made her first start of her collegiate career, going 0-for-3 with three strikeouts as Arizona’s designated player on Friday. … Candrea also experimented with a different leadoff hitter on Friday. He put sophomore center fielder Adrienne Acton in the leadoff spot Friday, her first time batting that high in the order. It was the third consecutive game there was a leadoff hitter other than Champion, who batted in the spot for the previous 147 games.
