UA

Arizona softball takes Game 1 of NCAA super regional against Auburn

Zack Rosenblatt
Arizona Daily Star
Arizona outfielder Eva Watson (14) is congratulated by teammates after scoring during their NCAA Super Regional softball game against Auburn Saturday, May 28, 2016 in Auburn, Alabama. Arizona won 5-3.

AUBURN, Ala. — When the Arizona Wildcats beat Tennessee in last week's NCAA regionals, UA coach Mike Candrea said he hadn’t seen a team of his celebrate like that in a long time.

The party was short-lived, however. A few days later, Arizona was off to Auburn, Ala., for the super regionals.

Following a three-hour flight on a small plane — small enough that a few staffers were forced to fly into Atlanta and then drive 90 minutes to Auburn — the Wildcats were in the thick of SEC country, preparing for the biggest series of their season.

It felt like it on Saturday, too, with fans packed so thoroughly into Moore Field that some without tickets retreated beyond the outfield wall to catch the game.

For this big moment, the Wildcats used small-ball.

Arizona received solid pitching and timely hitting and beat No. 4 seed Auburn 5-3. The Wildcats are now one win away from the Women's College World Series.

“It’s a good victory,” Candrea said. “This team, the one thing I know about it is that it’s battle-tested.”

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Arizona received solid pitching and timely hitting and beat No. 4 seed Auburn 5-3. The Wildcats are now one win away from the Women's College World Series.

“It’s a good victory,” Candrea said. “This team, the one thing I know about it is that it’s battle-tested.”

Arizona had nine hits — and six of them never left the infield.

Four of Arizona’s runs came on groundballs, and the fifth came when Mandie Perez was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. That run came as part of a three-run sixth inning that gave the Wildcats the lead for good.

All told, Arizona put the ball in the outfield just five times.

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Arizona had nine hits — and six of them never left the infield.

Four of Arizona’s runs came on groundballs, and the fifth came when Mandie Perez was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. That run came as part of a three-run sixth inning that gave the Wildcats the lead for good.

All told, Arizona put the ball in the outfield just five times.

Win big, play small.

“We’re trying to keep it simple, not looking too far down the road,” Candrea said. “It’s not about the past, so take care of what you can right now. That’s what we did today.”

Arizona snapped an eight-game losing skid in the super regional round, the last win coming in 2010, also the last time the Wildcats made it to Oklahoma City. The Wildcats can close it out with an 11 a.m. game on Sunday; if Auburn wins, the teams will play against at 2 p.m. with a trip to Oklahoma City on the line.

“The mind-set is to come out just as strong as we did today,” center fielder Eva Watson said. “It’s still a brand new day, and as we’ve seen watching other games in supers so far, anything can happen. The most important thing for us is to not lay down and to come out just as strong as we did today.”

Arizona outfielder Eva Watson (14) is congratulated by Danielle O'Toole after she scored during their NCAA Super Regional softball game against Auburn Saturday, May 28, 2016 in Auburn, Alabama. Arizona won 5-3.

Watson started it off for the Wildcats, too, hitting a lead-off single in the third inning and later scoring on a Mo Mercado groundout. Watson led off the fifth with a walk, advanced to third on a groundout and a single and scored on an infield RBI hit from Mercado.

An inning later, Arizona loaded the bases on three straight singles — including, of course, an infield single from Alexis Dotson and another from Watson — and brought home a run when Perez was hit by a pitch. Ashleigh Hughes reached on a fielding error, scoring another run, and Watson scored again when Mercado reached on a fielder’s choice.

Arizona finished with nine hits, but just three left the infield. Nancy Bowling had one hit, and Tamara Statman had the other two.

Auburn pitching coach Corey Myers said Saturday that Arizona is "really good at the short game."

"I think that’s what got them here,” he said. “We practice each week and we have a saying that bunts, run-downs, pop-ups, they all need to be outs. Tonight we just didn’t get enough outs on those plays. We need to do a better job.”

If Watson started things off, it was pitcher Danielle O’Toole who closed it out. She’s done a lot of that lately.

O'Toole, starting her fourth straight game of the postseason, pitched a complete game and only allowed two hits.

The San Diego State transfer ran into some trouble in the third inning — fielding errors by Watson and Mercado helped Auburn take a 2-1 lead — but responded by retiring 10 of the next 11 batters.

She entered the final inning with a 5-2 lead and promptly gave up a home run to Auburn's Jade Rhodes.

No matter: O’Toole retired the next three batters in a row, the clincher a strikeout of Courtney Shea.

“She’s done it all year,” Candrea said.

Her final line: seven innings pitched, two hits allowed, one earned run with five strikeouts.

"We practiced all week for her and prepared," Rhodes said of O’Toole. “We just got away from our plan.”

So now Auburn, the SEC champion and the fourth overall seed in the NCAA Tournament, is facing elimination, while Arizona is sitting in the driver’s seat.

“We played good situational softball tonight,” Candrea said, “and now we just need to get ready for tomorrow.”