Eyeing a pitch right over the plate in the bottom of the seventh inning Thursday night, Kelsi Hoopiiaina connected on a towering shot that landed over the left field fence.
The solo home run gave the Utes some momentum for a late-game charge in their Pac-12 home debut, but they needed three more runs and didn’t get them in a 6-4 loss to Arizona at Utah Softball Stadium.
Despite the loss, there was a more positive feeling surrounding the team after the game than the frustration that ensued following Tuesday’s loss to Utah Valley University.
“Today we raised the bar and we got a stick to it,” Hoopiiaina said. “We can’t go up and down with our energy. We’ve got to show up every game, and it starts with the first pitch. So as long as we bring the energy, we’re going to get a win.”
Coming into the game, Arizona had six hitters who were batting over .300. In the first inning, the Wildcats demonstrated that prowess with four hits and four runs. In response, Utah was only able to muster one run in its half of the inning when Chalese Fankhauser scored after hitting a triple.
The Utes didn’t allow the Wildcats to score again until the fourth frame, but couldn’t capitalize on their own opportunities to score. For the game, Utah left eight runners on base.
Even though Utah lost, Fankhauser, who was a perfect 3-for-3 from the plate, agreed with Hoopiiaina’s assessment that Thursday’s contest was a much better performance than Tuesday’s.
“I feel like we came out a lot better as a whole,” Fankhauser said. “I felt everyone in the dugout at all times, and I feel like it was a good team victory, but we’re not satisfied.”
Head coach Amy Hogue said she was proud of the way the team responded to Tuesday’s poor performance. She was pleased with improvements made in hitting, though she emphasized the need to turn hits into runs. Moving forward, she hopes the team brings the same intensity, passion and commitment to the rest of the series against the Wildcats.
One area of frustration for Hogue on Thursday was the fact Utah allowed Arizona to score in bunches. In the Utes’ last four losses, their opponent has scored the majority of their runs in one or two innings. Hogue said it is about time Utah had similar innings.
“It is still that one big inning we are giving up, and the team understands that,” she said. “The team is doing their best to avoid that, but it keeps happening to us. It’s our turn on offense to put a big number up … we can’t give up that big number. Especially on this big of a field, we’re going to give up runs, but we’ve got to match it.”
After yesterday’s game, Fankhauser said the team only needs to make a few adjustments to get a win in the second game of the series tonight, which begins at 6 p.m.
“We’re going to carry the good things from this game and start from there,” she said. “We’re going to finish. We’re not just going to hang around. We’re going to finish tomorrow, and I believe we can do it if we continue to play how we played today and get rid of those stupid mistakes we had.”