The old adage is that pitching wins. For the No. 3 Texas Longhorns, the pitching doesn’t jump out as especially elite according to stats. It’s certainly effective enough to back up the strong UT offense, though.
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That offense dominated No. 15 Arizona softball 12-2 in five innings on Sunday morning at the DeMarini Invitational in Stanford, Calif. It was once again inaccessible to fans across the country unless they were in the stadium or listening to Texas radio.
The Longhorns used a huge third inning to bust open the game. They put one run up in the first while squandering a prime opportunity to take a stranglehold out of the gate. Arizona returned the favor by squandering a runner at third with no outs in the second and a runner at second with one out in the third.
That’s when Texas pounced. The Wildcats used three of their four pitchers in the third inning. None was very effective.
It started with a leadoff walk and a double to put two in scoring position with no outs against Arizona starter Rylie Holder. That ended her day.
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Holder would take the loss to drop to 3-1. She was charged with 3 runs (2 earned) in 2.0 innings pitched. She gave up 5 hits and 2 walks.
Jalen Adams came in to try to keep the runners from scoring. A fielder’s choice that didn’t record an out loaded the bases, then Adams hit the next batter.
The Texas radio play-by-play announcer has mentioned that some of the Longhorns crowd the plate, but only people in the stadium know if that was the case in this situation. Regardless, Adams has hit 11 batters so far this season. Four of them were in the UT lineup. This time it forced a run in to start a 10-run inning for the Longhorns.
Two singles and a fielder’s choice scored three more runs for Texas. That brought up Ashton Maloney with one out. She worked a walk from a 3-2 count, but the Texas play-by-play thought one of those balls was a strike. There was no way for anyone outside Stanford’s stadium to know, of course.
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Besides, it didn’t matter. The walk forced in the fifth run in the inning. The Longhorns were only halfway done with the damage.
Another double scored the sixth run, then Adams walked a batter. That was it for her. She gave up seven runs on four hits in 0.1 innings. She walked one and hit a batter.
Sarah Wright entered the game for Adams. She was the third Arizona pitcher of the inning. She gave up two singles that scored three more runs, but all of them were charged to Adams.
The Wildcats finally stopped squandering offensive chances in the top of the fourth. Emma Kavanagh and Sydney Stewart walked to start the inning. After a Kez Lucas strikeout, Tayler Biehl stepped into the box.
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After hitting in the three and five holes this season, Biehl was moved down to seven for this game. Perhaps it would help the bottom of the order, which has been scuffling.
It helped this time. Biehl’s double drove in Kavanagh and Stewart. Arizona was finally on the board, although it trailed 11-2.
Two straight flyouts stranded Biehl in scoring position. Arizona was 1 for 10 with runners on base, 1 for 9 with runners in scoring position, and 0 for 4 with runners on third with less than two outs. Biehl was the lone hitter to do something when her teammates got on ahead of her.
Biehl has been an effective run producer for the Wildcats this year despite having the lowest slugging percentage of Arizona’s top five RBI hitters. She was third on the team coming into the game with 14 RBI. Her .479 SLG% trails even Sereniti Trice’s .654. Trice is just ticks below Grace Jenkins, who has a .659 SLG%. Kavanagh leads the team with a .793 SLG% and a 1.234 OPS.
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Texas was still well within run-rule territory after Arizona put its two runs on the board. The Longhorns made sure they stayed that way.
UT added an insurance run in the bottom of the fourth. Caigan Crabtree was credited with a leadoff double that might have been held to a single if the ball had come in quicker from left field. A single two batters later put runners on the corners with one out. The Longhorns played effective small ball by using the groundout to get in another run-rule insurance run.
Arizona had the top of its lineup slated for the top of the fifth. They went down on two strikeouts and a groundout to end the inning.
Wright threw 1.2 innings, giving up 2 earned runs on 4 hits and 2 walks.
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Teagan Kavan came in with a 2.41 ERA and a 1.22 WHIP. Her ERA actually went up to 2.53 and her WHIP rose to 1.25 after facing Arizona despite the dominant game. She went 4.0 innings against Arizona with two earned runs on four hits and two walks. She struck out five, often coming up with big strikeouts when she was threatened.
Kavan started all three games against ranked opponents at the DeMarini Invitational, going 3-0. She is 6-0 on the season.
Hannah Wells finished things out in the circle for the Longhorns. She struck out two of the three batters she faced and gave up no runs on no hits and no walks.
The loss gives Arizona a 2-4 record against top 15 teams and a 12-5 record overall. All four of the ranked losses came against teams ranked in the top five by the NFCA. The other loss was to Coastal Carolina, which won the Sun Belt Tournament and made the NCAA postseason last year with a 42-19 record.
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Arizona returns home for its final preconference tournament next week. It will face Eastern Illinois, Minnesota, and Howard once each. It will also play Long Beach State twice. The Beach lost to Oregon State twice, dropped a game to Utah, were defeated by UTSA, and couldn’t overcome BYU, but they beat Oklahoma at the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic on Saturday. The Hillenbrand Invitational gets started on Thursday.
