Arizona softball took down Oklahoma Friday night at Hillenbrand Stadium, a win that put the nation on notice and gave Caitlin Lowe’s program a jolt of energy to open the first weekend of the season. A near sold-out crowd watched the No. 17 Wildcats rally late to overtake No. 3 Oklahoma 11-6. “Tucson is the […]
Arizona softball took down Oklahoma Friday night at Hillenbrand Stadium, a win that put the nation on notice and gave Caitlin Lowe’s program a jolt of energy to open the first weekend of the season.
A near sold-out crowd watched the No. 17 Wildcats rally late to overtake No. 3 Oklahoma 11-6.
“Tucson is the best place to play softball in the entire country,” Lowe said after the game. “They make a difference every single time they’re out here. I think they know it. We come alive, but our play just sets this crowd on fire.”
Arizona has a chance to win the series tomorrow when the teams face off at 5 p.m. MST.
Our recap of the game can be found here. Below is what Lowe, pitcher Jalen Adams and shortstop Tayler Biehl said after Arizona’s series-opener victory.
Lowe on facing Oklahoma’s elite pitching staff: “We prepared like crazy for every single one, and it’s tough to do when they have such a deep staff. So true credit to the team for being able to make adjustments. I thought just some key at bats throughout that. I think even the walks we were able to work in key moments were huge for us tonight.”
On the team’s mentality: “Honestly, they were ready to go blow for blow all night. And I think they were ready for the challenge of today. And I think I saw a completely different team than yesterday, honestly. I know the score was a little bit different, but this was a different team today. We learned a lot about ourselves just stepping right up to a challenge. What a gritty win for our pitching staff and our defense to have too. And then just never giving up. You know? I think that’s the biggest thing. We got punched a little bit and gut punched and then we got back up and made an adjustment. So I think that was huge.”
On getting on base whatever way possible: “Honestly, the hitters did a great job communicating with each other all night. And for me, yesterday, we weren’t making adjustments on the fly. And today, we did it against very good pitching staff. So I thought we did give some of that today. I mean, we had opportunities early in the first inning, even, to score more runs. So we kind of thought that it was only a matter of time. We were just gonna keep pressure on every single inning, and I think we did that all but maybe one or two innings.”
On preparing for tomorrow: “I think we got to wipe the slate clean. It’s 0-0 again. And just understanding we’ve gotten a lot of information from today, as far as being able to see a lot of arms. Not (Audrey) Lowry as much, obviously, but just being able to make the adjustments when the next change happens. Knowing our scouting of her, because they changed during the game with how they were throwing us, so kind of being one step ahead of that game, too.”
On playing in front of a packed crowd: “Tucson is the best place to play softball in the entire country. They make a difference every single time they’re out here. I think they know it. We come alive, but our play just sets this crowd on fire. And I think they were an x factor for us tonight, and really showed out in a big way.“
On Adams’ start to her Arizona career: “I mean, it’s huge, you know? I think, yeah, you look at the no hitter yesterday, which is awesome, and at the same breath like today took guts. Like serious guts. That is one of the best softball. teams in the country, and she went toe to toe with him all night I mean, anything that happened, just took with a grain of salt, and kind of went after the next hitter. Tough to do with a lineup like that. I think everybody knows that. So just proud of the performance, and once she settled into herself, we knew we were going to stick with that for a long time.
Biehl on her grand slam: “Our crowd is amazing, you can just feel that every single person is on our side, which is super cool just to kind of feel that presence. Knowing that my teammates already did it before me, and this is just insurance. So I have nothing to lose up there. I was just like digging in. We’ve been preparing for this moment for all fall, the whole entire year, we’ve been preparing for this. And so I just did my thing, and I was just trusting my preparation, and I knew that all Tucson was on my side and I was gonna do it.”
On facing Oklahoma pitcher Miali Guachino after seeing her last year at Ole Miss in NCAA Regionals: “I think we saw her for three games, or two or three games or whatever. So I’d seen her a lot. So it was kind of just a little bit of redemption to just kind to get my moment off of her again, because I’d seen her so much. But just ultimately our preparation, that we’ve been prepping in the fall and January.”
On coming back from a deficit: “”We’re just really gritty. We just play a fundamental softball. We take the balls and we let our pitches in the zone. We swing at those ones and hit them far and hard. And so just trusting our preparation again, that our coaches have prepared us to be in the right spots defensively to make good plays, our pitching staff to just go in there and throw amazing games, just trusting that we have their back. That’s just a part of the game, runnings are going to get put up on the board. We just have to score one more than they did. And we just trusted ourselves and our grit and just to play fundamental softball. Get them over, get them in.“
On whether she made any adjustments at the plate in the offseason that led to the grand slam: “Not really. Just kind of stayed myself. A couple tweaks here and there, with most like mentality things just to stay more consistently. Because being a senior, I feel like you’ve been doing it for a while now. And just to mature more mentally, and physically to be able to be in those big moments and take a deep breath and just trust that what we’ve been doing and all the preparation again, that we’ve been putting in. Preparation is just a huge thing for everything we’ve been trusting in that we are ready for these big moments.”
On hearing her name being chanted by the fans: “Oh, it’s awesome. That’s the big thing about being here for four (years) is the community that you build between the fans, and also little girls here that remember you, and kind of seeing them grow up too, which is kind of cool. So it’s just a really wholesome moment. And I was one of them when my aunt was playing here, and so it’s just kind of awesome to see them seeing me as a role model. And it just keep pushing me to be the best self that I can be, to give these girls a good person to look up to on and off the field.”
On preparing for the rest of the series: “Just to stay composed. We saw it all. We saw four or five of their pitchers tonight, and so just knowing that, like if we play our best softball like we did tonight, we can beat anybody in the country.“
Adams on settling into the game: “I think it was just a pitch too far over the plate. I think you come in and you try to get ahead right away so that was the original goal. But I think after that, I kind of settled in, I was like, You know what? I’m not going to strike everybody out, that’s not what type of pitcher I am, I need to trust my D. And once I did that, they had my back, and we got all the outs that we needed to win the game.”
On her maturity on the mound: “I think like Tayler said, like being a senior, you’ve been here a few times, so I think just that, and then trusting in my team. I feel like if you can trust in your team, you can do anything. So that was honestly just at the back of my mind.”
On getting off to a strong start to her Arizona career: “Oh, it’s amazing. Yeah, I don’t think I can really say much more than that. I love this team and I love this environment and this community, and I’m excited to see what we can do this year. The atmosphere here is just amazing. I think that you can’t really find this anywhere else, honestly. So I would just say it’s uncomparable to anything, and I love it.”
Category: General Sports
