No. 14 Arizona fell behind early and never recovered in a 7-3 loss to No. 21 Ole Miss in the Tucson Regional final of the NCAA Tournament at Hillenbrand Stadium on Sunday.
Arizona left 10 runners on base and had five scoreless innings on offense in a must-win game for the Wildcats, who needed to beat Ole Miss twice on Sunday to advance to an NCAA Super Regional in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Instead, Arizona’s season ended with a record of 47-13 after splitting with the Rebels on Sunday.
A four-run first inning by Ole Miss wiped away any momentum that may have carried over from Arizona’s 10-1 win in five innings over Ole Miss in game one of the regional final earlier in the day.
“I’ll start off by saying congrats to Ole Miss. I thought it was a hard-fought game, beginning to end, and I’m just so incredibly proud of the way our group showed up today. They showed up throwing punches from the beginning to the very last out,” Arizona head coach Caitlin Lowe said. “I thought we didn’t get a lot of breaks in the second game. That was tough, and at the same time, they just kept going to work.”
Despite losing game two against Ole Miss, Caitlin Lowe was proud of the way Arizona showed up today in the regional final. @AllSportsTucson pic.twitter.com/jy5mPexxi1
— Kevin Murphy (@KevinMurfee) May 19, 2025
Grad senior Miranda Stoddard, who played two seasons for Arizona after three seasons at Kentucky, and redshirt senior Devyn Netz, who played in 102 games in four seasons for the Wildcats, reflected on their college careers and time at Arizona.
“It’s tough. It’s emotional,” Stoddard said. “I’ve been playing softball for 20 years now, and so it’s just it’s hard. Anytime you close a chapter of your life, even knowing that you have great things ahead, it’s still hard. But I think that I can speak for both of us, and we’re really just proud to have worn this uniform and to be passing it along and know that we’re leaving it in good hands.”
“I’m so, so grateful for the people that have surrounded me, the people who supported me and everyone behind the scenes,” Netz added. But gosh, I can’t help but think that we’re leaving this uniform better than we found it, and not not only as a player, but also as a person. It’s just one of the biggest things that I strive to do is just to leave each place better than I found it, and honestly, I can’t think of a better group to leave this uniform with and pass it on to our seniors this next year.”
@KimDoss71 asked Miranda Stoddard and Devyn Netz to reflect on their emotions following their last game wearing an Arizona uniform. @AllSportsTucson pic.twitter.com/ZWFPwInlhi
— Kevin Murphy (@KevinMurfee) May 19, 2025
The four runs in the first inning for Ole Miss came on a pair of two-run home runs from Aliyah Binford and Mackenzie Pickens off Netz.
Arizona cut the lead in half in the bottom of the first inning with an RBI single by Kaiah Altmeyer and a bases-loaded walk from Stoddard, but ended up stranding three runners on base.
“It was a punch,” Lowe said of going down four runs in the top of the first inning. “But we were throwing punches all day, and I was proud of us for responding with the two there in the beginning. A lot of people are going to talk about the left on base, but we were relentless getting people on and putting pressure on every single inning, and our outs with runners left on base were feisty.”
Caitlin Lowe on how going down 4-0 to begin game two against Ole Miss impacted the team following a 10-1 run-rule win over the Rebels is game one. @AllSportsTucson pic.twitter.com/PcPym1X4OF
— Kevin Murphy (@KevinMurfee) May 19, 2025
Ole Miss extended its lead to three runs in the top of the third inning when Persy Llamas hit a solo home run. Aissa Silva then came in to relieve Netz in the circle and gave up a single and a double, and after an RBI sacrifice fly from Ashton Lansdell, Ole Miss led 6-2.
Sydney Stewart hit a leadoff solo home run to center to open the bottom of the third inning to cut into the Ole Miss lead, and the Rebels stretched the lead to 7-3 with a solo home run from Binford in the top of the fourth inning.
Netz (22-6) allowed five runs and six hits with two strikeouts in two innings.
Stoddard took the circle to begin the fifth inning and finished the game for Arizona.
It was all Arizona in the 10-1 win in five innings over Ole Miss in game one of the regional final.
Stoddard picked up her 15th win of the season, allowing one run and five hits with two strikeouts in five innings.
Arizona began the opener on Sunday with four straight hits in the top of the first inning that produced four runs off Ole Miss starter Guachino. The first run came on an RBI double by Netz and Stewart followed her with a three-run home.
Binford relieved Guachino in the circle after Stewart’s at-bat. Binford’s solo home run in the bottom of the first ended up being the only run for Ole Miss.
Arizona added three runs in the second inning to go up 7-1. The first runs came on a two-run triple to the right field corner from Kennedy, which scored Jenna Sniffen and Tayler Biehl, who opened the inning with singles. Shockey then brought Kennedy home with an RBI fielder’s choice after a throw to the plate bounced out of the glove of Ole Miss catcher Pickens.
Arizona scored off an RBI single from Regan Shockey in the top of the third inning and a two-run home run from Altmeyer in the fourth inning to extend its lead to 10-1.
Arizona advanced to the regional final on Sunday by beating Grand Canyon 4-1 in an elimination game on Saturday night. The Wildcats lost to Ole Miss earlier on Saturday after beating Santa Clara on Friday.
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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