The Arizona softball team continued its winning ways this weekend as they went 5-0 in the Wildcat Invitational. After two wins over BYU and lone wins against Colorado State, Seattle University and Oregon State, the No. 3 Wildcats moved to 10-0 on the season.
Here are three things we learned from this weekend.
Arizona’s pitching staff remains elite
The pitching staff came to play. Over the five-game invitational, the Wildcats only surrendered seven runs. Alyssa Denham had a complete game shutout with five strikeouts in the Wildcats 12-0 win over BYU. There was no need for the Wildcats’ bullpen to get involved as all five starters this weekend were able to finish the game.
The home run parade is still in town
Arizona showed off their power as they hit nine home runs as a team this weekend. Freshman Carlie Scupin led the Wildcats in this category as she hit four home runs, two of them came in the game against Colorado State.
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Both Jessie Harper and Dejah Mulipola had multiple home runs this weekend with two. For the second straight week, the Wildcats put up a lopsided run differential as they outscored their opponents 44-7 this weekend.
Arizona’s first taste of adversity? No problem
Arizona stepped up in the face of adversity. In its last game of the invitational against Oregon State, Arizona trailed the Beavers 2-1 heading into the bottom of the eighth inning.
Giulia Koutsoyanopulos scored the tying run off a single from Scupin, setting up a walk-off single from Hannah Bowen to lift the Wildcats over the Beavers 3-2.
The victory does not go towards Arizona’s conference record but that didn’t stop head coach Mike Candrea from praising his team for its relentless effort to close out the weekend.
“This was an important win,” Candrea said. “We were able to win late in the last game of a long weekend.”
The Wildcats have now won 21 straight wins dating back to last season.
Arizona will go on its first road trip of the season as they travel to Florida to play the University of South Florida, the University of Central Florida, Florida A&M and Florida State. The first game is against USF on Saturday, March 6, at 11 a.m. MST.
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