Arizona Softball

No. 13 Arizona will host Tucson Regional, to face Santa Clara in opener Friday

Posted on
Share



ESPN graphic

Arizona’s softball team will host the Tucson Regional as the No. 13 overall seed in the NCAA tournament beginning Friday with a matchup against West Coast Conference champion Santa Clara at 4:30 p.m. at Hillenbrand Stadium.

After the Wildcats (45-11) play the Broncos (32-20) on ESPN+, Western Athletic Conference champ Grand Canyon (46-6) will face Ole Miss (37-17) of the SEC at 7 p.m. on ESPNU.

Arizona will host a regional for the 27th time out of its 37 postseason appearances.

The Wildcats last hosted a regional in 2021, when the Wildcats swept the competition, including Ole Miss.

The winners of Friday’s games will meet on Saturday in the third game of the Tucson Regional, while Friday’s non-advancing teams will play in Game 4. The loser of Game 3 and the winner of Game 4 will meet Saturday for a spot in the regional final.

Sunday will be the regional final with the “if-necessary” seventh game to begin after the conclusion of the first game on Sunday.

Arizona has one of the most dominant offenses in the nation ranking eighth in batting average (.347), 10th in hits (507), and 19th in home runs (74).

In the Big 12, Arizona is first in batting average, hits, on-base percentage (.434), RBI (354), and runs (395).

Center fielder Regan Shockey, led the Wildcats and the Big 12 with 78 hits and right fielder Kaiah Altmeyer leads the conference with 17 doubles.

Defensively, the Wildcats lead the Big 12 and are ranked 18th in the NCAA with a .974 overall fielding percentage. Arizona has made 30 double plays, which ranks second in the conference.

Arizona placed seven players on the All-Big 12 teams led by Devyn Netz, who was named the Big 12 Player of the Year.

Netz, Dakota Kennedy, Miranda Stoddard, and Sydney Stewart earned first-team all-conference honors while Altmeyer, Shockey, and Jenna Sniffen were named to the All-Big 12 second team. Netz and Kennedy picked up all-defensive team honors and Sniffen was named to the all-freshmen team.

Arizona has advanced out of 33 of the 36 regionals since 1987 and owns an 104-12 record in the round overall. Arizona has advanced to the super regional round in 17 of the 18 seasons since they began in 2005.

SANTA CLARA

The Broncos beat host Oregon State 15-4 in five innings on Saturday to clinch their first West Coast Conference championship, which enabled them to earn the first NCAA tournament berth in the program’s 46-year history.

Shortstop Rebecca Rubio and designated hitter Robynn Balmediano had four RBIs apiece for Santa Clara in the win over Oregon State, a former Pac-12 rival of Arizona. Rubio had three hits as did catcher Taryn Clements. 

Sophomore second baseman Cairah Curran leads the WCC in batting average, hitting .429. She broke both the program and conference record for hits in a season with 78.  Curran, who started all 52 regular-season games, recorded seven doubles and five triples, and scored a league-best 49 runs during the regular season.

Hope Alley, a third baseman formerly of Cal, is second on the team in hitting with a .372 batting average. She drove in a conference-best 41 runs.

Hannah Edwards is 9-5 with a 2.83 ERA and 81 strikeouts with 30 walks.. She posted four complete games. Cari Ferguson was 8-9 with a WCC-best 1.92 ERA and 60 strikeouts with 49 walks in 26 appearances.

Santa Clara has never played Arizona before in program history. The Broncos lost the only meeting against Ole Miss and they are 1-6 against Grand Canyon. 

GRAND CANYON

Grand Canyon won three straight games in the Western Athletic Conference tournament at Riverside, Calif., capped with a 4-3 11-inning victory Saturday over Tarleton State, claiming their fourth consecutive conference championship title.

The Lopes’ 23rd straight win makes Grand Canyon only the second program to have four WAC softball tournament championships.

Designated player Emily Gonzalez captured the game-winning hit and the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player award with a home run to dead center in the top of the 11th inning to break the 3-3 tie that stood for the previous seven innings.

Maggie Place picked up her 10th win of the season after a dominant performance in the pitching circle, throwing a scoreless final eight frames of the game for her longest outing of the year. After coming out of the bullpen in the fourth inning, Place (10-3, 2.03 ERA) struck out five batters, didn’t allow any walks and gave up only five hits.

Second baseman Savannah Kirk, right fielder Makaiya Gomez, and shortstop Mackenzie Nolan all had two-hit games for Grand Canyon against Tarleton State.

Gonzalez was named as the 2025 WAC Most Outstanding Player after batting .333 in the tournament.

Joining Gonzalez on the all-tournament team from GCU were Gomez, Kirk and Place.

Grand Canyon is 0-15 against Arizona, including a 7-3 loss in an eight-inning game in March at Phoenix. The Lopes are 0-10 at Hillenbrand against the Wildcats.

GCU has never played Ole Miss in softball.

OLE MISS

Arizona pitching great Nancy Evans will make a return to Hillenbrand with Ole Miss, serving in her first season as pitching coach with the Rebels.

Ole Miss coach Jamie Trachsel announced the addition of Evans, a six-time NCAA national champion pitcher and coach, to the Rebels’ staff last June.

One of the most successful and highly decorated pitchers in NCAA history, Evans won three national championships at Arizona (1994-98) and still holds the NCAA record with a .939 career winning percentage (124-8 overall record). She finished her collegiate career with a 0.98 career ERA and was named the 1998 Honda Sports Award recipient as National Player of the Year.

Evans was a two-time first-team All-American, the 1997 NCAA College World Series Most Outstanding Player, a three-time College World Series All-Tournament Team selection and a four-time All-Pacific Region and All-Pac-10 Conference honoree. She was also named to the Pac-12 All-Century Team in 2016, and in 2022, NCAA.com recognized her as one of the 11 best pitchers in collegiate softball history.

Before joining Ole Miss, Evans served on staff at Illnois-Chicago as the Flames’ pitching coach. She helped UIC post a 3.43 team ERA, its best mark since 2018. Under Evans, a pair of arms posted sub-3.00 marks in the circle.

Evans began her coaching career at Arizona from 1999-2007, first as a volunteer assistant and later as a full-time assistant coach. As Arizona’s pitching coach, Evans helped lead the Wildcats to three more NCAA national titles and mentored an All-America hurler each season. Some of the legendary Arizona pitchers Evans developed were Becky Lemke, Jennie Finch, Alicia Hollowell and Taryne Mowatt.

Evans’ jersey number 13 was retired by the school in 2002, and she was inducted into the Arizona Sports Hall of Fame in the same year.

Trachsel has led the Rebels to an NCAA tournament appearance in each of her five seasons. The program is making its eighth straight appearance.

The Rebels have earned several standout victories, including a win over No. 1 Tennessee, a series win over No. 10 Arkansas and two victories over No. 6 Florida, with the latter coming in extra innings at the SEC Tournament.

Jaden Pone, a left fielder, led the way for the Rebels, earning All-SEC First Team honors and an SEC All-Defensive Team nod at left field. Pone became the second Rebel in program history to earn First Team honors, joining two-time winner Kylan Becker in 2017 and 2018.

Additionally, Pone joined Tate Whitley (2023), Autumn Gillespie (2021) and Kaylee Horton (2019) as Rebels to be named to the SEC All-Defensive Team.

Joining Pone as first-time honorees were catcher Lexie Brady and first baseman Persy Llamas, who each took home All-SEC Second Team honors. Llamas became the first Rebel freshman to earn All-SEC First or Second Team honors since Amanda Fine in the program’s first year of 1997.

Ole Miss is 0-5 against Arizona with four of the losses (two defeats each year) in the 2021 Tucson Regional and 2019 Super Regional.

Related Items:, , , , ,

Recommended for you

Comments
To Top