It was a big day for both teams. No. 19 Arizona softball was holding its senior day and likely last game of the season at home. The Houston Cougars, having been eliminated from the Big 12 Tournament and coming up on their conference bye week, were playing their final game of the season before the calendar even turned to May.
“I don’t know if I love it,” said Arizona head coach Caitlin Lowe, noting that it’s even tougher for Houston since most teams don’t want to play out-of-conference during the final week. “I think it’s kind of cool to have everyone involved [with the conference tournament], and then there’s a true champion at the end of the day. But we’ll see. I mean, this is the first time…it’s going to be done this way, and we’ll probably talk about it. I kind of think it’s nice to have everyone there. I mean, the SEC is doing it with how many teams? I think they’re starting on a Tuesday, because it’s going to take all week long.”
It wasn’t always a pretty outing, but it went Arizona’s way for the third straight day. The Wildcats committed two errors in the field, but they did enough right to defeat the Cougars 15-4 in five innings.
“The goal was to get everybody in the game today,” Lowe said. “And man, like top to bottom, just really good team win—I think team weekend all around, with everybody just doing their job.”
At the beginning, Houston looked more dangerous than it had the previous two games. Part of that was Arizona’s doing, though.
The Cougars took their first lead of the weekend on a two-run home run by Maddie Hartley. It was her Big 12-leading 20th of the season.
Hartley’s home run was a multi-run affair because of a misplay on a grounder off the bat of leadoff hitter Makenna Mitchell. Mitchell made solid contact with the first pitch from Arizona starting pitcher Jenae Berry, but it should have been an easy out for second baseman Sereniti Trice. She rushed the throw and first baseman Kez Lucas had to come off the base to control the ball. It put a runner on for Hartley.
The 2-0 lead didn’t stand up for long. Arizona used three home runs, including the 19th of the year off the bat of Sydney Stewart, to go up 5-2 after one. Tele Jennings and Grace Jenkins also sent the ball over the wall in the first.
It was the last time Stewart would get a pitch to hit. She was intentionally walked all three times after that first at-bat. Her three intentional walks in the game made it six IBB and seven total walks in the three-game series. At some points, she inched closer to the edge of the box, hoping one of the intentional balls would get within her reach.
“Some of them were a little iffy,” Stewart said. “Some of them were close. So, you know, anything I get my swing off on, but at the end of the day, just gotta take the walks, take what they can give you.”
The Wildcats put five runs up in each of the first three innings. While Stewart wasn’t allowed to do damage with her bat for most of the game, she still ended the day 1 for 1 with 3 walks, 3 runs scored, and 3 RBI. She raised her batting average to .431.
Houston had to pick its poison, though. With Jennings, Biehl, and Jenkins behind Stewart, there were plenty of opportunities for that trio.
Jennings went 3 for 4 with a HR, 2 runs scored, and 5 RBI. Biehl was 1 for 3 with an RBI and a run scored. Jenkins went 3 for 3 with 2 HR, a double, 5 RBI, and 2 runs scored.
It was yet another strong performance for Jennings since she began earning everyday at-bats in late March. She ended the game with a .371 average. For Lowe, it goes back to long before the at-bats started coming.
“The most important part of her progression has been staying the course in the beginning of the season,” Lowe said. “I think a lot of people would have tanked at the beginning of the season mentally, just not feeling—like I’m not getting my opportunity. But she didn’t. She stayed the course, and she got better as the season went on, and that’s, quite frankly, what our whole team has done, and it’s why you’re seeing people be successful in their moments. It’s why we’re seeing the whole team cheer for those people when they get their moments. It’s everybody wanting the best for each other, and that is an uplifting feeling.”
Jennings herself notes how important that uplifting feeling has been to her improvement since transferring to Arizona this year.
“I think the biggest difference is just having coaches that believe in me, the teammates, just the environment I’m in has been really instrumental to where I am today,” Jennings said. “The girls who are putting extra work, pushing others to do extra work also, and then everyone’s just cheering for each other.”
She takes a lot from watching and hitting behind Stewart, who developed into one of the most feared hitters in the country during the last two years at Arizona. Both of them have credited hitting coach Amber Freeman with making them better players.
“We’ve had many conversations just about then to now,” Jennings said. “And we talk a lot just me being behind her. And then I think just, again, what this environment has. And Coach Ber, she’s amazing. The amount of work she puts into her job is insane. And she just has so much love for the girls, and you can really feel it.”
The environment has had a big impact on Jenkins in her one year at Arizona, as well. While she was already known as a dangerous hitter, she’s learned a lot of other things since becoming a Wildcat, including how to live in the high-pressure environment of Arizona softball.