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Pac-12 Softball Tournament: Arizona dominates Washington to advance to semifinals

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Pac-12 Softball Tournament: Arizona dominates Washington to advance to semifinals


STANFORD, CALIF.— There were two keys to Arizona defeating Washington in their first game at the Pac-12 Softball Tournament. Both were on the offensive side of play. The Wildcats executed both perfectly in a dominant 11-3 run-rule victory over the Huskies.

When the Wildcats played the Huskies in Tucson, they allowed UW righty Ruby Meylan to determine the zone. They chased her pitches. They couldn’t do that at Stanford’s Boyd & Jill Smith Family Stadium if they hoped to be successful.

They didn’t chase her pitches, but they did chase Meylan from the game in the second inning on the way to a six-inning victory over the Huskies.

The other key to the game was the reason the ‘Cats got to Meylan. The middle of the order came through. All of Arizona’s hitters had been to the plate two batters into the second inning. UA was up 4-0 after two with hits and RBIs from Carlie Scupin, Allie Skaggs, and Olivia DiNardo.

“I think we were all just excited to come out,” Scupin said. “We remember our series against Washington, so I think we kind of played with a little bit of a chip on our shoulder. But I mean, honestly, not even just the middle of lineup. It was one through nine all night, so it was great.”

Freshman pitcher Sidne Peters was able to keep the Wildcats off the board in the third, but they eventually got to her, too.

“Peters came in and threw some dirty stuff, and they just stayed consistent and worked at it and took some stuff to get to better quality at-bats,” Arizona head coach Caitlin Lowe said.

In the sixth, it was time for Lindsay Lopez to try her hand against the Wildcats. Arizona put runs on the board every inning except the third and scored at least two runs in four of the six innings played.

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It wasn’t all about the hitting, though. The Wildcat pitchers had a strong collective effort using the all-hands-on-board approach in the circle that Lowe mentioned before the team left Tucson.

Miranda Stoddard got the start. She was strong for the two innings she pitched. She gave up just two hits and one walk. The Huskies couldn’t push a run across against her.

Brooke Mannon surrendered two runs on two hits and a walk in one inning of work. She struck out two in the third inning but was unable to get an out in the fourth before giving up a two-run home run. It didn’t stop her from getting the win, though. Mannon improved to 6-3 on the year.

Aissa Silva relieved Mannon after the two runs scored in the bottom of the fourth. She immediately gave up a home run, pulling UW within two runs of Arizona.

That was the extent of the damage, though. Silva gave up one run on two hits and two walks to pick up the three-inning save.

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It was a complete turnaround from the way the Wildcats looked when they faced UW earlier in the season. The Huskies run-ruled Arizona twice before losing the final game of the series 2-0. UA couldn’t muster a lot against Meylan either time they faced her, although they did get their win in a game she pitched.

“We prepared all week,” Scupin said. “We knew we were gonna get Ruby. So I think it’s that and being prepared and looking at our at-bats from last time in the series against them. But like flipside, just trusting our abilities and all of that. I think we’re a completely different team now than when we played them. So, we knew what we wanted to do today. We did that.”

What they did was impose their will at every turn and pick each other up when they needed to. When their pitchers gave up three runs in the bottom of the fourth, the offense went out and got two of them back in the top of the fifth.

Those two runs came on a home run by DiNardo, who went 3-for-4 and tied her career high with five RBI. Two of her hits went for extra bases.

It was the second straight year DiNardo hit one out of Stanford’s stadium. The native of San Mateo, just a few miles up the road from Palo Alto, seemed to be in her element.

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“I do like coming home,” DiNardo said. “It’s always nice to be home with my family and see my dogs and stuff like that, but it’s different. I do like playing in Tucson in front of those fans.”

Scupin was 2-for-4 with an RBI and a double. Skaggs went 2-for-4 with two RBI and a double. That made the three, four, and five hitters 7-for-12 with three doubles, a home run, and eight RBI on the day.

“I think we all really trusted ourselves today and just kind of took pitch by pitch and not trying to force anything to happen,” DiNardo said. “It was like we’re good enough the way we are without having to change the game at all.”

The top and the bottom of the order continued to produce, as well. Seven of Arizona’s hitters got at least one hit. Even those who didn’t, like catcher Emily Schepp, made good contact. Schepp almost hit one out, but the 205-foot left-field fence was just a few inches too far and too high.

Was it the most complete effort of the season for the Wildcats?

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“That’s exactly what I said first to them,” Lowe said. “I thought all the way around. The pitching was handing the ball to the next person and doing their job. I was thrilled with our pitching performance tonight as well as our defense. Just really excited about the way they came out and stayed consistent throughout every inning.”

Now they get a chance to get revenge against another team they felt they should have played better against. Arizona will face UCLA in the semifinals. The last time the two teams faced each other, the Wildcats were going into the bottom of the sixth with a 7-0 lead before the Bruins came back to win 11-7. It was the difference between winning their series 2-1 and losing it 1-2.

This time it’s for a spot in the finals of the last Pac-12 Softball Tournament.





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Full, unredacted copy of Arizona fake electors indictment released

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Full, unredacted copy of Arizona fake electors indictment released


PHOENIX (AZFamily/AP) — The Arizona Attorney General’s Office has released the full, redacted copy of the state’s fake electors scheme indictment just days after the final defendant, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, was served after his 80th birthday party while he was walking to his car.

Arizona’s Family obtained a full copy of the indictment early Monday which confirms that all defendants are facing charges for fraud, forgery, and conspiracy, all of which are felonies.

“We look forward to full vindication soon,” Giuliani’s political adviser, Ted Goodman said in a statement Saturday.

The indictment alleges that Giuliani “pressured” Arizona legislators and the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to change the outcome of Arizona’s election and that he was responsible for encouraging Republican electors in Arizona and six other contested states to vote for Trump.

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Goodman said that Giuliani is expected to appear in court Tuesday unless he is granted a delay by the court.

Mark Meadows, Trump’s former chief of staff, is among others who have been indicted in the case.

Neither Meadows nor Giuliani were named in the redacted grand jury indictment released earlier because they had not been served with it, but they were readily identifiable based on descriptions in the document. The Arizona attorney general’s office said Wednesday, May 1, that Meadows had been served and confirmed that he was charged with the same counts as the other named defendants, including conspiracy, fraud and forgery charges.

With the indictments, Arizona becomes the fourth state where allies of the former president have been charged with using false or unproven claims about voter fraud related to the election.

Giuliani faces other legal proceedings, and a bankruptcy judge this past week said he was “disturbed” about the status of the case and for missed deadlines to file financial disclosure reports. Giuliani filed for bankruptcy after being ordered to pay $148 million to two former election workers for spreading a false conspiracy theory about their role in the 2020 election.

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Giuliani was also indicted last year by a grand jury in Georgia, where he is accused of spearheading Trump’s efforts to compel state lawmakers in Georgia to ignore the will of voters and illegally appoint pro-Trump electoral college electors.

Among the defendants are 11 Arizona Republicans who submitted a document to Congress falsely declaring that Trump won in Arizona in the 2020 presidential election — including a former state GOP chair, a 2022 U.S. Senate candidate and two sitting state lawmakers. The other defendants are Mike Roman, who was Trump’s director of Election Day operations, and four attorneys accused of organizing an attempt to use fake documents to persuade Congress not to certify Biden’s victory: John Eastman, Christina Bobb, Boris Epshteyn and Jenna Ellis.

Trump himself was not charged but was referred to as an unindicted co-conspirator.

The 11 people who had been nominated to be Arizona’s Republican electors met in Phoenix on Dec. 14, 2020, to sign a certificate saying they were “duly elected and qualified” electors and claiming that Trump carried the state. A one-minute video of the signing ceremony was posted on social media by the Arizona Republican Party at the time. The document was later sent to Congress and the National Archives, where it was ignored.

Biden won Arizona by more than 10,000 votes.

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Eastman, who devised a strategy to try to persuade Congress not to certify the election, became the first person charged in Arizona’s fake elector case to be arraigned on Friday. He pleaded not guilty to conspiracy, fraud and forgery charges.

Eastman made a brief statement outside the courthouse, saying the charges against him should have never been filed.

“I had zero communications with the electors in Arizona (and) zero involvement in any of the election litigation in Arizona or legislative hearings. And I am confident that with the laws faithfully applied, I will be fully be exonerated at the end of this process,” Eastman said. He declined to make further comment.

Arraignments are scheduled May 21 for 12 other people charged in the case, including nine of the 11 Republicans who had submitted a document to Congress falsely declaring Trump had won Arizona.

All of the following individuals are named as defendants in the indictment: Rudolph Giuliani, Mark Meadows, John Eastman, Boris Epshteyn, Christina Bobb, Jenna Ellis, Michael Roman, Kelli Ward, Tyler Bowyer, Nancy Cottle, Jacob Hoffman, Anthony Kern, James Lamon, Robert Montgomery, Samuel Moorhead, Lorraine Pellegrino, Gregory Safsten, and Michael Ward.

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The Arizona indictment said Eastman encouraged the GOP electors to cast their votes in December 2020, unsuccessfully pressured state lawmakers to change the election’s outcome in Arizona and told then-Vice President Mike Pence that he could reject Democratic electors in the counting of electoral votes in Congress on Jan. 6, 2021.

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Slight cool down with winds ahead for Arizona

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Slight cool down with winds ahead for Arizona


Mostly sunny and warm today, with a high of 100 in Phoenix.
This will not be quite as warm as the 104-high temperature in Phoenix on Saturday. Winds will increase to 10-15 mph this afternoon in the Phoenix metro area, with some gusts of around 25 mph. In the high country, gusts of 30 mph are possible this afternoon.



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Arizona gets commitment from JUCO receiver Jeremiah Patterson

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Arizona gets commitment from JUCO receiver Jeremiah Patterson


The Arizona Wildcats just got done hosting a big recruiting weekend, hosting multiple transfer players on official visits. By Sunday evening, it was clear that these efforts were successful, culminating in numerous commitments from the visitors.

One of the players who announced, albeit not an FBS transfer, was junior college wide receiver Jeremiah Patterson.

Patterson, who is coming in from College of San Mateo, is a perfect fit for the slot position after Kevin Green’s departure for Washington. What’s better, he will most likely slide in behind his CSM teammate Reymello Murphy, who is also heading to Tucson.

The 5-foot-9, 175 pound speedster finished his first JUCO season with 328 yards on 35 catches and 4 scores. This past year, he increased his production in a big way. He caught 55 passes for 790 yards and 11 touchdowns. Some of the eye-opening stats between his 2 seasons in JUCO are his average yards per game and averages yards per catch. His yards per game jumped from 29.8 in 2022 to 60.8 last year. For his yards per catch, 9.4 his first year to 14.4 this past season.

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On the recruiting side, he is ranked as a 2-star in 247’s internal JUCO rankings, with no composite ranking. He had 8 offers and chose the Wildcats over Eastern Michigan, UNLV, San Jose State, Georgia State and Missouri State among others.

It is clear that the staff has a strong connection to the College of San Mateo. With Patterson’s announcement, there have been 5 additions from CSM. The others are Murphy, defensive back Johno Price, edge Cyrus Durham, and defensive back Demetrius Freeney (who also committed Sunday).



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