The Utah softball team continues to turn heads.
The most recent instance came over the weekend as the Utes took their series against No. 16 Arizona, two games to one. The series concluded with a 4-2 Utah win on Sunday in Salt Lake City.
Arizona came in as one of the top teams in the conference, after Oregon and UCLA. But the conversations about top teams now must include Utah, as the Utes have won each of their series against Pac-12 teams, except the Ducks and Bruins.
“We’re really starting to find our confidence,” said assistant coach Cody Thomson. “Right now our pitchers and hitters are looking as good as they have all season.”
In game one on Friday, Utah came out aggressively and built up a 5-0 lead entering the fifth inning.
Arizona soon broke out of its scoreless drought, though. In the fifth, the Wildcats put up seven runs on four hits and one error to give them the lead. But it wouldn’t last for long.
After Utah tied it up in the bottom half of the fifth, the Utes scored three more runs in the sixth and then were able to keep the Wildcats at bay, finishing with a 10-7 game one victory.
Four Utes had multi-hit games, including senior outfielder Maddy Woodard. Woodard had one of her best performances of the season, going 2-of-3 from the plate while also adding two RBIs. One of her hits came during a critical point in the fifth inning when Arizona had taken the lead for the first time. Woodard hit a two-run home run, which tied the game back up and shifted momentum back to the Utes.
“I just came out attacking the ball, and I felt like my team had a lot of confidence in me,” Woodard said. “It felt really good off the bat, and it was just a really cool feeling.”
“Everyone in the dugout just went crazy when she hit that home run,” said second baseman Hannah Flippen.
In game two, Utah found itself in yet another close contest, but this time, it wasn’t able to come out on top, as the Wildcats evened the series with an 8-6 win.
It wasn’t the prettiest game for either side, and there were plenty of errors that plagued the game.
In similar fashion to the first game, most of the scoring and excitement came during the latter innings. A few lead changes occurred, but Utah couldn’t battle back from a five-run sixth inning by the Wildcats.
With the series still up for grabs in game three, the Utes capitalized on their chance to take a series from a top 20 team.
“It was probably one of the best wins we’ve had as a program,” Flippen said. “The series win was so important because it further builds and verifies our confidence that we can beat any team.”
The story of game three was how unsuccessful the Wildcats were at the plate, as a result of the pitching and defense from Utah.
A three-player effort of Miranda Viramontes, Sammy Cordova and Katie Donovan held Arizona to just two runs off three hits. Arizona simply wasn’t able to get anything consistent going and never could find an answer to the Ute pitching.
“That’s a really good team there in Arizona,” Thomson said. “For us to have come in with the confidence to beat them and do it was great to see.”
Utah will travel to Arizona State for its final road regular season conference series next weekend.
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