It was a good weekend for Arizona softball head coach Caitlin Lowe and her staff. Just a week after coaches were allowed to contact members of the class of 2026, Lowe received two verbal commitments. Pitcher Lilly Hauser announced on Sunday afternoon. A few hours later, infielder Violet Mitchell took to social media to let everyone know about her decision.

Mitchell lists several positions on her Sports Recruits profile, but her OnDeck Softball profile states that her primary position is shortstop and her secondary position is pitcher. She plies those trades with Liberty High School in Peoria, Ariz. and travel team Storm – Mathis 18U.

Mitchell does not have stats for last season on MaxPreps, but her freshman year stats from 2022-23 were solid at the plate. She carried a .358 batting average in 53 at-bats over 21 games. She drove in 17 runs with 19 hits, including three doubles, three triples, and two home runs. She also scored 19 runs.

Mitchell didn’t hit a lot of home runs, but her speed and her ability to draw 13 walks gave her an OPS of 1.120. She also struck out 13 times.

Her performance earned her the honor of All West Valley Preps second-team as a freshman.

Mitchell does not have stats available online for her sophomore year. There is no online record of her playing that season, including on her social media. However, she did play travel ball with Arizona Storm this past summer.

Mitchell was already showing elite metrics when she started high school. Measurables such as sprint speeds, bat speed, hand speed, exit velocity, and throwing speed taken in June 2022 and again in June 2023 are available on her OnDeck Softball profile. When she entered high school, all measurables except for grip strength were superior to those of an average 11th-grade player.

Mitchell is the youngest of three children. She’s already thinking about life in college and beyond.

“I aspire to be a Physical Therapist and open my own practice ONE day with my brother,” she wrote on SportsRecruits. “I am the youngest in my family – I have a big sister who is studying to be a teacher and a big brother who plays baseball. We all push each other. It is fun. I have big goals to play D1 softball and win a College World Series!”

Mitchell and fellow 2026 commit Hauser can sign their national letters of intent in November 2025.

Sept. 8 (UPI) — Police are investigating the crash of a vehicle into an Elks Lodge Saturday night in Apache Junction, AZ, a suburb of Phoenix, injuring more than two dozen people.

“The driver is in custody, and alcohol was a contributing factor,” the Apache Junction Police Department said in a statement posted on social media.

The Apache Junction Elks Lodge’s Facebook page says there was an “open mic” night taking place at the venue when the accident occurred. All of the injured people were adults and were sitting inside the establishment, according to the Superstition Fire Department.

Ten of the injured people were transported to local hospitals and 15 other victims were treated for minor injuries at the scene, police said.

The Elks Lodge is on N. Apache Trail in Apache Junction, a city about 45 minutes east of Phoenix amid sprawling cacti fields and open Sonoran desert.

A photo released by local police late on Saturday showed a dark-colored full size pickup truck having come to rest near a stage inside the lodge, surrounded by debris, appearing to have driven into the building.

College football can be an interesting game sometimes. Top teams drop games to unranked teams frequently.

Arizona was almost the latest team to do so after they struggled against FCS Northern Arizona on Saturday night. Entering the contest, the expectation was for the Wildcats to come away with an easy win and have their starters sit for much of the second half.

Instead, Arizona was down 10-6 at half-time. They shut Northern Arizona out in the second half, winning 22-10, but it was far from an impressive performance.

Something must’ve been happening in college football in Week 2, as multiple high-level teams struggled and even lost against much lesser competition.

But at the end of the day, Arizona survived. If they hadn’t won this game and hadn’t won the Big 12 Championship Game when the time came, they likely would’ve been kept out of the College Football Playoff because of it.

Still, what happened? Why did Arizona struggle against a team they should’ve beaten by 40-plus points?

The clear answer was their offensive line struggled for much of the night. The line didn’t protect Noah Fifita, so he scrambled all game and rushed plays.

That’s an issue as the Wildcats head into Big 12 play next week, facing a top-20 Kansas State team.

“I think we need to evaluate on film and see how we looked, see if there’s anything we can do schematically or formationally to give us a better chance to find rhythm,” Head coach Brent Brennan said of Arizona’s offensive line, according to Justin Spears of Tuscon.com. “I also thought they did some good stuff and made some plays. We popped some runs when we needed to and had some good protection, hit some throws. But the consistency wasn’t what we liked it to be.”  

Arizona will also have a short week to figure things out. Their game against Kansas State will be on Friday.

However, while it was ugly, college football is perhaps the biggest sport in the world where an ugly win isn’t the be-all and end-all. The Wildcats’ focus was to go 2-0, and they accomplished that.

“We gotta go back to work,” Brennan said. “I’m happy as hell we’re 2-0 and we’ve got a big game on Friday night in a short week. We’ve got a lot of stuff to figure out in a short window.” 

It’s time to get to work as Arizona looks ahead.