After completing a sweep at Kansas on Sunday, No. 13 Arizona can now try to cut into No. 14 Texas Tech’s Big 12 lead by competing directly with the Red Raiders and their ace NiJaree Canady starting Thursday at 5 p.m. at Hillenbrand Stadium.
Arizona’s 11-1 win in five innings Sunday over the Jayhawks improves its overall record to 36-7 overall and 13-5 in the Big 12.
Texas Tech also achieved a sweep against Houston at home this weekend and is now 34-9 and 14-1.
The 14 wins in conference play is a program record.
The Red Raiders have swept four straight Big 12 opponents dating back to their series with Baylor in mid-March.
Arizona has won five consecutive Big 12 series since losing two of three games to UCF at home to open conference play. The Wildcats swept Utah and Kansas in that span.
Texas Tech and Arizona are the clear top two teams in the Big 12. Arizona State is third with an 11-7 record and is 31-14 overall. The Red Raiders host the Sun Devils in two weeks. Arizona won two of three games at Tempe last month.
The Wildcats run-ruled Kansas in their last two games at Lawrence.
On Sunday, they plated 11 runs on 12 hits, led by home runs hit by Regan Shockey (inside the park) and Devyn Netz.
Netz had a team-best three RBIs while Sydney Stewart and Paige Dimler drove in two runs each.
The Wildcats struck early with five runs in the first inning. The first four runs scored on a two-run single from Stewart and a two-run double from Dimler.
Jenna Sniffen, who had a strong series defensively at third base, drove in the fifth run of the inning with an RBI single.
Arizona struck again in the second when Shockey beat the Jayhawks’ defensive shift and hit her first career home run with the inside-the-park achievement. That gave the Wildcats a 6-0 lead.
Kansas hit a solo home run in the bottom of the second to make it 6-1.
In the fourth inning, Arizona plated four to take a 10-1 lead.
Dakota Kennedy drove in the first run with an RBI single to right field. Netz then homered to drive in three more runs. It was her 14th home run of the season.
Arizona added one more run in the fifth on an RBI single from Kennedy, extending the lead to 11-1.
In the circle, Netz picked up the win to improve to 16-4. She went three innings and allowed just one run on two hits.
Saya Swain relieved Netz in the fourth inning and struck out three of the six batters she faced.
Canady is 17-4 with a 0.72 ERA with 196 strikeouts and 21 walks in 127 innings in her first season at Texas Tech after starring at Stanford. She figures to be the starter Thursday and either Friday or Saturday.
Netz and Miranda Stoddard have emerged as two formidable starters for Arizona.
Netz has a 2.39 ERA and has 80 strikeouts and 17 walks in 102 2/3 innings. Stoddard is 9-0 with a 2.04 ERA with 34 strikeouts and eight walks in 65 1/3 innings.
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