The field of teams at the DeMarini Invitational is impressive with three top 15 squads. The execution has been anything but impressive, but it didn’t bother the No. 3 Texas Longhorns in a 12-2 victory on Friday afternoon.
Softball onSI reports that Santa Clara County told the outlet that permits for the stadium were not in place because “some electrical issues have not been resolved.” Both Stanford and the builders of the stadium refused to comment on the issue.
That meant that Arizona played its opening game against Boise State at West Valley College on Thursday. On Saturday morning, the Wildcats will face Stanford in the new stadium at 10:30 a.m. MST. Arizona then has to drive to Santa Clara to face the Broncos in their home stadium at 2 p.m. MST.
The move to West Valley College was actually a gift to fans back in Tucson. The host juco streamed the game on its YouTube channel for free. On Friday, the only way to find the No. 15 Wildcats and the No. 3 Longhorns was via live stats or the Texas radio broadcast. That will repeat when the teams match up again on Sunday morning.
Maybe it was just as well.
Texas pitcher Teagan Kavan came in with a 3.50 ERA and a 1.40 WHIP in 2o innings of work, but she had a much stronger day against Arizona than those stats would suggest. She pitched a three-hit, four-walk complete game, giving up just two runs. Both were unearned.
Meanwhile, Arizona ace Jalen Adams had severe control problems in her start. She walked in two runs in the first inning and hit three batters. The third hit-by-pitch was to Texas star Reese Atwood, who had to leave the game after being hit in the helmet and (possibly) the face.
Adams went just 3.0 innings. She gave up four earned runs on six hits, two walks, and three hit batters. Her defense also committed an error behind her. She struck out three.
Freshman Rylie Holder entered the biggest game of her young career in relief. She also had an error committed behind her, continuing the struggle by the Arizona defense this season.
Holder went 3.1 innings. She gave up six runs on six hits while she was on the field. She was charged with two more, one of them earned, after she left. She ended with eight runs (seven earned) on six hits, one walk, and a wild pitch. She struck out one.
Jenae Berry relieved Holder in the seventh with runners on the corners and one out. She couldn’t hold the runners. While Berry wasn’t charged with the runs, she walked the first two batters to force another run across. What was charged as a fielding error by Sereniti Trice but, according to the Texas radio broadcast, looked more like a throwing error by Addison Duke allowed another unearned run to score.
It wasn’t just about the Arizona pitching, though. Only two Wildcats got any hits. One was by Trice. The other two came off the bat of Kez Lucas. Each player had an RBI, both of which came in the second.
They paired up for one of those RBI. Lucas hit a popup just in front of second base. Texas second baseman Leighann Goode couldn’t make the catch, and Trice scored from second on an infield single.
Arizona shuffled its lineup. Tayler Biehl did not start the game. Arizona did not respond to questions about the cause of her absence, but it caused several changes both to the batting order and defensive lineup. Regan Shockey played shortstop for the first inning. Duke moved to center and Kiki Escobar patrolled left.
Biehl entered the game in the top of the second, pushing Shockey back to center field, Duke into left, and Escobar out of the lineup. It didn’t matter offensively, but Biehl made some fancy defensive plays that kept Texas from piling on even more runs.
Texas scored in four of the seven innings. Two of those innings produced two runs each. The other two produced four runs each.
Arizona will try to pull things back together when it plays Stanford and Santa Clara on Saturday. The games will start at 10:30 a.m. MST at Stanford. Arizona will then have to go to Santa Clara for the second game, which is due to start at 3 p.m. MST. The Stanford game should be available on ACCNX, which is where it was initially scheduled to stream on Thursday evening. There is no viewing information for the Santa Clara game.
