The No.17 Arizona softball team defeated the University of Villanova 9-4 on Sunday, May 19, to move on to the super regionals in the NCAA Softball Tournament.
In the final game of the regional in Arkansas, Arizona once again played Villanova who they had played and beaten 14-3 on Friday, May 17.
Arizona was made the home team and sent out Miranda Stoddard as the starting pitcher.
After a quick top of the first inning only having to face three batters from Villanova, the Wildcats scored 1 run after senior second baseman Allie Skaggs hit a sacrifice fly scoring Regan Shockey from third.
With the early lead, Arizona’s defense fended off the Villanova batters once again in the top of the second, allowing no runs on one hit and one error by Arizona’s shortstop Tayler Biehl.
In the bottom of the second, Arizona extended its lead over Villanova on an RBI from Kaiah Altmeyer and a 2-run home run from Dakota Kennedy, making the Wildcats’ lead 4-0.
Arizona got 3 more runs in the bottom of the third inning after a lead off home run from Skaggs and an RBI triple from Biehl.
Arizona’s bombardment was finally broken up in the top of the fourth as Villanova tried to mount a comeback and scored 4 runs in the inning. Arizona was not only forced to change pitchers once, from Stoddard to Brook Mannon, but twice, from Mannon to Aissa Silva. However, this rotation was just a repeat of game one, as Silva finished out the game for the Wildcats, giving up no more runs.
Arizona, however, was not done yet. In the bottom of the fifth inning, Arizona added 2 more runs to its lead after solo home runs from Emily Schepp and Kennedy. Kennedy’s run was her second of the day.
With a 9-4 lead, Arizona closed out the game in the top of the seventh inning, giving up seven hits and two errors.
Looking ahead:
Arizona will now travel to Stillwater, Oklahoma next week for the super regional, which will be a three-game series against No. 5 Oklahoma State University. Oklahoma, like the Wildcats, went undefeated in its regional, beating University of Kentucky, who had just dropped out of the top 25 rankings, and the University of Michigan.
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