Arizona used a 7-run fifth inning to run rule Alabama 9-1 on Saturday night, improving to 4-1 on the season. The Wildcats play Washington, whom they lost to on Friday, to wrap up the weekend Sunday morning
You can find out recap here. Below is what head coach Caitlin Lowe, Emma Kavanagh, and Kaiah Altmeyer had to say following the win:
Lowe on the fifth inning performance: “I think you know they tend to catch fire offensively when they’re locked in like that. I think you can see it on the flip side, and you kind of saw that yesterday, but they were locked in. We talked a lot about composure in those big moments yesterday, and I saw a whole lot of people step up and do that today. You know, I think Ko and Kai and Logan. They’re, they’re always great examples. Reagan, but I saw it from Emma Kavanagh, a freshman. I saw it from Sydney Ste. I saw it from Devyn, kind of not having success, and then executing in her last step back there. Those are big moments for us, because if you can stack on top of that, then we’re going to keep getting better.”
On bouncing back from yesterday’s games: “Well, they learned from the loss. They got motivated by it, which is what you always want to see. The losses are, I don’t want to say good, but the losses, you know, you can take them a little bit easier when they’re learning from them. They grow from them, and they’re going to have a bad taste in their mouth about that one for a while. Just knowing that’s not the team that they are, and this is the team that they can be today. So I think that was important for them to respond from and really just be hungry for tomorrow too, and being that consistent team on a daily basis.”
On the crowd showing up, even with both basketball programs playing before and after: “Well, it means we scheduled appropriately, finally, because we normally conflict with a lot of sports. I will say that we did a deep dive into their schedules so that fans could beat everything. We know Tucson fans are die-hard fans, and they’re gonna get to whatever they can. Tucson just shows up for their sports, and I can’t say enough about our crowd today. I think it was one of the X factors of the game, and a reason why our players love playing here.”
On what former head coach Mike Candrea means to the program: “He sits right up there for most of our home games. He’s built this place in such a big way and still a huge part of our program. So our players are proud to work with him because of his standards that he set here. He still comes into the dugout and greets every single player on our team and they love having his presence around too. So we’re honored to have him throw out the first pitch every year, as long as we keep winning the games that he throws out the first pitch.”
On Miranda Stoddard and the pitching roles: “I mean, it’s huge. I have to say, last year did wonders for her, and the fact that she was able to get the ball so much in big moments, high leverage situations, and the growth that came from that was awesome. She stepped into this year a different person, so she wanted the ball, like, in a big, big way that was exciting. I think even more exciting too, was Ryan Maddox coming into that game, and absolutely in good matchups. I’ve just been so pleasantly surprised. Not even surprised, I can’t say I’m surprised, because just to have that composure as a freshman is huge, and it’s huge for us, and it just shows throughout our entire line.”
On the statement to beat Alabama: “I think Alabama is a great team. They have great hitting, great defense, and always great pitching. So I think being able to make adjustments off a really good pitcher in Briski was huge for us, and we struggled against Aaliyah Johnson when we went to Alabama last year, so to be able to execute against her felt like we were making steps in the right direction to kind of not make the game too big, but simplify in those moments. That’s what I saw today. Just everyone locked in. It didn’t matter if they got out their first step and they learned from it and got better in the next one. So that felt good, and mostly just the response from yesterday, when nobody really felt well, nobody really felt good about it. So to turn it around in a quick amount of time says a lot about a good team.
Altmeyer on the win, and the fifth inning: “I’ve just been seeing the ball. I just was glad to be in a position where I could do that for my team. Yeah, it just feels good. We needed that one. I think just passing the bat, that’s like our motto, like, give the bat to the next person. I think I was just the one. I was waiting for that moment and just did what I could.”
On Stoddard’s performance: “That’s huge for her to put up zeros. I mean, just gives the offense more of just, I think, confidence to know that it’s kind of up to us and gives the momentum on our side, and just chipping away and passing the bat. I think just translating what we saw pitch to pitch just helps our team, better get more numbers up on the board.
On freshman stepping up: “It’s awesome. I think just being freshmen and not having the experience that us upperclassmen do at the college level and being able to get hits against these big teams is huge.”
Kavanagh on the win: “I think we caught fire after a tough loss yesterday, we came back and coach Cait fired us up with a pre-game speech, and I think the whole team needed to hear it. I feel like our pitcher stepped on the mound and was ready to go, and that fired us all up. A double play kind of early on, set the tone, and I felt as hitters, we prepped last month, even two months after we got back from winter break, just for that moment.”
On facing Washington again: “Pumped the win today, I know is going to feed into tomorrow, and I know as a team, we’re going to show up like we did today, but tomorrow, and it’ll be fantastic. I feel really good coming in tomorrow.”
On the crowd atmosphere: “I love Tucson fans. They’re fantastic. You’ll find them nowhere else. I know that we have the greatest fans in the country who will travel with us and stay here wherever we go.”
