The Student News Site of University of Arizona

The Daily Wildcat

59° Tucson, AZ

The Daily Wildcat

The Daily Wildcat

 

Arizona softball sweeps Utah on the road, improves to 12-0 in conference play

Arizona+softball+sweeps+Utah+on+the+road%2C+improves+to+12-0+in+conference+play
Caleb Villegas

Arizona softball hit the road over the weekend, heading to Salt Lake City, Utah, and it dominated the Utah Utes in a three-game sweep that allowed Arizona to keep its perfect conference record so far this season.

Game 1

The Wildcats started out weekend play with a 13-0 rout against the Utes in a game that ended in a run-rule victory after five innings.

National pitcher of the week Taylor McQuillin got her third consecutive shutout in the past eight days. She tossed her eighth shutout of the season and became tied for third in the country for most shutouts.

Arizona’s 13 runs on the night came from 11 hits. Arizona’s Malia Martinez had four hits, Rylee Pierce had two, and Hannah Martinez had a two-run homer. Jessie Harper added to the damage with a two-run homer of her own for the junior’s 20th blast of the season.

          RELATED: Softball shuts out Sun Devils, sweeps home series

Game 2

On Saturday, Arizona got a season-best 22 runs in one game two win 22-1. The runs came on just 19 hits in only five innings, similar to game one. The 21-point victory margin for Arizona on Saturday was the largest on the road in program history and the largest in a conference game since defeating Stanford 25-0 in April of 1995.

After a five-run first, the Wildcats scored 12 runs in the second inning to grab a big lead once again. The scoring outburst was aided was four players who had three-RBI days: Alyssa Palomino-Cardoza, Malia Martinez, Jenna Kean and Dejah Mulipola.

Harper had four RBIs on one swing with a grand slam, giving her an NCAA-best 21 home runs and her fourth consecutive game with a homer.

Game 3

After a record-breaking past two days, Arizona softball had all the momentum going into the final game of the weekend series.

A 13-2 win after five innings against the Utes on Sunday helped Arizona secure its fourth-straight sweep to open conference play this season.

Three different Wildcats had at least three RBIs. Malia Martinez had a total of four, while Pierce and Jenna Kean had three apiece. Pierce was the only Wildcat to go deep, though, as she hit a two-run shot in the third inning.

After no runs being scored in the first two innings, Arizona scored three runs in the third inning and nine in the top of the fifth to end the game in a run-rule victory.

What’s Next:

After the three weekend games, the total summation score was 48-3 after fifteen innings. The Wildcats improve to 32-7 on the overall season and 12-0 in conference play and sport a fourteen-game win streak.

Arizona is back in action this weekend to take on Grand Canyon University, a non-conference opponent, in Phoenix, Arizona starting on Friday, April 12 with a doubleheader and ending on Saturday, April 13.


Follow Amit Syal on Twitter


More to Discover
Activate Search