Dakota Kennedy, Aissa Silva lift No. 18 Arizona softball to season-ending win over GCU

The No. 18 Arizona Wildcats needed to have short memories. Just two days after a heartbreaking loss to UCLA they were facing a tough Grand Canyon team that came in with a 42-10 record and five wins over major conference teams, including then-No. 17 Virginia Tech. UA couldn’t afford to wallow in what could have been.

Looking back wouldn’t help with a tough team on the schedule for Arizona’s final game of the regular season. Staying in the moment against a strong GCU squad allowed the Wildcats to close the regular season on a high note with a 3-2 victory.

“Obviously we didn’t have the outcome that we wanted on Sunday, but that’s done and over with,” said sophomore outfielder Dakota Kennedy. “No dwelling on that anymore. We knew we’re coming to play GCU. We were focused on GCU and we did what we had to do.”

Kennedy certainly didn’t seem to have anything on her mind except for the task at hand. She immediately put the Wildcats up with a lead-off home run in the bottom of the first.

The left fielder was a major cog in Arizona’s offense all night with a 4-for-4 showing at the plate and two home runs. It was the fourth multi-homer game of her career and the second this season.

The Wildcats got another run in the first on a Blaise Biringer groundout that scored Regan Shockey. The 2-0 lead was slim, though.

GCU got its lead-off batter on base every inning until the sixth. The Antelopes finally broke through in the top of the third. Arizona reliever Brooke Mannon loaded the bases on a single, an error, and a walk.

That ended the day for Mannon, who wasn’t able to record an out. Aissa Silva entered the game with the bases loaded and no outs. She surrendered an inherited run on a sacrifice fly but limited the damage to keep the Wildcats in front 2-1 after three innings.

GCU continued to show why it’s given teams from the Pac-12, the ACC, and the Big Ten trouble.

Katelyn Dunckle led off the fourth and quickly leveled the game at 2-2 with a long ball to left-center.

Arizona responded in the bottom of the inning with Kennedy’s second home run. The solo homer put the Wildcats back up by one run, but it definitely wasn’t enough of a lead to make them feel comfortable.

Silva walked the first batter in the fifth, but a strikeout and a double play ended that threat. In the sixth, she sat the Lopes down in order for the first time. Then, came the seventh.

Silva hit Tinley Lucas to start the inning. Lovey Kepa’a singled to put two on with no outs. Ashley Trierweiler came up and tried to move the runners.

Trierweiler bunted into the air. It looked like Silva was undecided about whether to try to catch it in the air or let Carlie Scupin field it. In the end, no one got to it and the bases were loaded with no outs.

As a high schooler, Silva set strikeout records for her program. It was what she was known for. In college things are different, and Lowe often talks about how important it is to use your defense. Sometimes strikeouts are needed, though—and this was one of those times.

“I definitely don’t think of it as a different mindset,” Silva said. “I kind of just go out there and be aggressive every time. Definitely having a great defense helps behind me, so I know I can rely on them to not always have a strikeout, but having a strikeout is always a plus.”

Silva struck out Kayla Rodgers swinging for the first out. She struck out Kristin Fifield looking for the second out.

Ramsay Lopez was the next hitter to step into the box. She has 13 home runs this season and could put the Lopes up by three if she got it out of the park.

Lopez fouled off the first three pitches. Then, Silva threw two balls to even the count. A foul and another ball made it full. Even another ball would tie the game. After what happened on Sunday at UCLA, that could be devastating.

Silva dug deep and got Lopez to swing at the third strike and end the game. It was the sophomore lefty’s seventh strikeout of the game.

“That was super important to me,” Silva said. “I felt the need to be there for my team. And I like to make it a little difficult on myself and make it a little interesting. But at the end of the day, I knew I needed to come in for my team and it’s the same as when they come in for me to hit.”

Silva earned her 21st win by throwing five innings of four-hit, one-run ball. She had one walk and hit a batter to go with the seven strikeouts. Four of those strikeouts came with the bases loaded.

What’s the difference between when Silva pitched into the defense and when she went for the strikeout?

“I just think you’re reading hitters, too,” Arizona head coach Caitlin Lowe said. “There’s going to be certain hitters who are making adjustments, and you’re going to have to pitch into your defense and then there’s going to be some people where you find some holes and you can attack them. And I was most proud of her because she knew…what she wanted to throw in one of those last at-bats and went after it. And to me, that’s just intent. It’s not her stuff. It’s not anything else except for she’s playing good softball in the moment. And I was proud of that and her knowing what she wanted in that very moment.”

Miranda Stoddard started the game but did not figure in the decision. She gave up three hits and a walk but didn’t surrender any runs in two innings. Mannon gave up one run on a hit and a walk.

Arizona returned to its pattern of relieving pitchers fairly quickly. The pattern isn’t always popular with fans, but it has been successful most of the time this season.

On Sunday against UCLA the staff went away from that and kept Silva in the game after she ran into trouble. That wasn’t the case on Tuesday, as they pulled Stoddard despite giving up no runs and quickly lifted Mannon when she was struggling.

Lowe said that the feeling in the moment helps determine whether to keep a pitcher in the game.

“I thought they squared up Miranda kind of early and Brooke wasn’t able to find the zone tonight,” Lowe said. “I think she’ll rebound from this and do better, but at the same time, that’s a very good team and you can’t give them a lot of chances. So we wanted to get Aissa in the game. She was one of the better matchups for them anyway, we just wanted to make sure we weren’t throwing her the full seven.”

Arizona completed its Pac-12 schedule with the series at UCLA but awaits this weekend’s games to find out who it will play in the Pac-12 Tournament. The Wildcats will be either the four or the five seed and play Oregon or Washington in a game scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. MST/PDT on Thursday, May 9.

The winner will take on the No. 1 seed on Friday, May 10. That likely means a rematch with UCLA.

The long break before the conference tournament can be looked at as a positive or a negative. Lowe is choosing to look at the pluses.

“They need a break,” she said. “I mean, it’s tricky not having your bye weekend in the middle of conference because it is kind of nice to get a breather. So they need a day, day-and-a-half of just the game off their bodies and off their minds. I think that’s the biggest thing. And to step into practice fresh.”

The Wildcats finished the regular season with an overall record of 33-15-1. They are 13-11 in Pac-12 play.