Arizona Softball

Arizona beats Grand Canyon to advance to NCAA regional final

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Arizona lost to Ole Miss earlier on Saturday before beating Grand Canyon in the nightcap. (Gilbert Alcaraz/All Sports Tucson)

No. 14 Arizona remains alive in the postseason after beating Grand Canyon 4-1 in an elimination game in the NCAA Tournament Tucson Regional on Saturday night at Hillenbrand Stadium.

The Wildcats lost 10-8 to No. 21 Ole Miss earlier on Saturday after getting into a four-run hole early. The Arizona will have to beat Ole Miss twice on Sunday in the regional final to advance to a Super Regional.

Arizona starter Miranda Stoddard (14-0) allowed one run and seven hits with three strikeouts and a walk in six innings, and Devyn Netz hit a two-run home run in the fifth inning and earned her second save of the season for Arizona in the circle.

“I think Miranda set a huge tone for us right off the bat that our offense followed with and made the adjustments throughout the game,” Arizona head coach Caitlin Lowe said. “I thought Dev with a big adjustment in that home run at bat, and then just super proud of her for coming in and closing the deal. So ready to get after tomorrow.”

Arizona (47-12, 17-7 Big 12) was up 1-0 in the top of the fifth inning when Tayler Biehl‘s leadoff single to shortstop prompted Grand Canyon to change pitchers, with Oakley Vickers taking the circle in place of starter Meghan Golden. Oakley recorded two outs and Golden returned to relieve Vickers and face Netz. She hit a two-run home run to left to extend Arizona’s lead to 3-0.

Netz said Regan Shockey gave her some advice before the at-bat and she saw something on the inside pitch before she swung.

“She just said, ‘Why don’t you just get your foot down a little bit earlier?’ And that’s what I did,” Netz said.

The Wildcats added a run in the top of the sixth on a slap single down the left field line from Biehl that scored Kaiah Altmeyer, who had singled to open the inning.

Arizona stranded four runners on base through three innings, and the game was scoreless until the top of the fourth inning when Stoddard hit a two-out solo home run to center to give Arizona a 1-0 lead.

“It was great to just get on the board, and obviously we wanted a little bit more than one run, like some insurance runs, which we ended up getting,” Stoddard said. “It feels great to be able to contribute on that side of the ball and then go back out there and keep shutting them out.”

Grand Canyon (47-8, 30-6 WAC) opened the bottom of the fourth with two singles, but Stoddard retired the next three batters to get the Wildcats out of the jam.

An RBI single through the right side from Makaiya Gomez in the bottom of the sixth inning was the fifth hit of the game for the Lopes, and Altmeyer caught a deep fly ball at the warning track in right field to record the third out of the inning and strand Gomez on base.

Willa Ford and Sydney McCray singled to open the bottom of the seventh, leading Arizona to bring Netz in to replace Stoddard in the circle. Netz went on to strike out the three batters she faced to record the save.

Netz gave up a game-tying home run in the seventh inning at Grand Canyon when Arizona faced the Lopes in the regular season on March 19. The Wildcats went on to win 7-3 in extra innings.

“When you play a team like that, it kind of lives in the back your mind,” Netz said of her last relief appearance against Grand Canyon.” Especially that, as a pitcher, you kind of want to make sure that you’re spinning the ball well and you’re moving it through the zone. So, I think in that moment it’s just to pick up Miranda and just make sure that she gets that win.”

Golden (14-1) allowed three runs, five hits with two walks and had a strikeout in 4 1/3 innings.

Maggie Place took the circle to begin the fifth and closed the game out for Grand Canyon.

Arizona plays Ole Miss on Sunday at 4:30 p.m. at Hillenbrand Stadium. If necessary, game two against Ole Miss is at 7 p.m.

FOLLOW @KEVINMURFEE ON TWITTER! ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com writer Kevin Murphy was born and raised in Tucson, and has followed Arizona Wildcats athletics since childhood. Murphy is a journalist product manager with the Green Valley News & the Sahuarita Sun. He has a bachelor’s degree from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at ASU.

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