The Arizona softball team rebounded from their rough series against Washington, completing a four-game sweep against the Oregon State Beavers as the Wildcats returned to Hillenbrand Stadium this weekend.
Here are three takeaways from this series.
Dominance at home continues:
After struggling for the past two road trips this home series could not have come at a better time. The Wildcats jumped right back into form in their first game back at Hillenbrand Stadium with a 7-0 victory.
The Wildcats stayed hot for the rest of the weekend as the last three games finished 9-5, 10-2 and 7-5. This series sweep extended their winning streak at Hillenbrand Memorial Stadium to 20 games.
“It’s nice to be back home,” head coach Mike Candrea said. “Hopefully we can carry this momentum for the rest of the season.”
Offense comes back to life:
After only being able to plate six total runs last weekend, Arizona was able to score 33 runs to go along with 12 home runs. The Wildcats were led by shortstop Jessie Harper with four home runs this weekend. Another key player against Oregon State was outfielder Alyssa Palomino-Cardoza who finished the series with six hits in a row and five extra base hits. She hit .727 on the weekend.
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The team was able to rebound from early deficits:
In the two games on Saturday Arizona fell behind early in the first game they went down 5-0 by the third inning. Once they were able to get out of the third inning the Wildcat pitching staff did not allow another run, which allowed Arizona to score nine unanswered runs to get the win.
In the second game of the doubleheader, they went down 2-0 in the first inning, once again like the first game once they got out of that rough inning they did not surrender another run. Arizona was finally able to score in the third inning. After that, Arizona did not look back as they scored 10 straight runs to invoke the mercy rule and ended the game in the fifth inning.
The No. 9 ranked Wildcats will be back in action next weekend as they are on the road for a series at Stanford beginning on Thursday, April 1, and ends on Saturday, April 3.
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