Arizona Softball drops first game of 2021 to No. 22 UCF

ORLANDO, FL – It was a solid weekend for Arizona Softball (12-1), but the Wildcats couldn’t complete the sweep as they dropped their first game to USF. 

It has been a great start to the 2021 season for Arizona Softball, as the Wildcats have been rolling against inferior competition thus far.

Just this weekend, Arizona travelled to Tampa to take on the USF Bulls. Looking to extend their winning ways, the Wildcats would get dominant performances in their Saturday and Sunday games against the Bulls, coming away with the 11-1 and 8-0 victories.

Arizona Wildcats

However, things became much more challenging for the Wildcats as they returned to action on Monday afternoon, this time against No. 22 UCF, hoping to complete the weekend sweep.

Turning to the always reliable Alyssa Denham to face the Golden Knights, it would however, be a challenging day for Alyssa and the Wildcats.

UCF would get off to a quick start as they loaded the bases in the bottom of the first inning, which eventually led to a run from UCF’s Karissa Ornelas, as Denham would walk her to bring in the first run of the game to make it 1-0.

Denham would remain solid throughout the game working out of jams, and keeping the Knights’ batters in check over the next three innings. Unfortunately, she would run into trouble again in bottom of the fifth when she would walk a UCF batter that would later be brought in on a double from UCF’s Georgia Blair to make it 2-0.

Despite having outscored opponents 108-13 coming into this game, Arizona’s offense would be unusually quiet in this one, silenced by the dominant pitching from Gianna Mancha.

The senior hurler from Fresno, CA had the Cats’ number as she went to work on Arizona’s line-up, holding the Wildcats to just three hits, zero runs, meanwhile striking out nine. Overall, it was just not a day to remember for Arizona.

With the 2-0 loss, the Wildcats fall to 12-1 on the year, and will have to bounce back quickly, as they return to action on Thursday, kicking off a weekend series against Florida State (11-4) in Tallahassee.