Arizona Softball opens regional play with 7-0 victory

TUCSON, AZ – With the NCAA Regional Tournaments officially beginning, Arizona Softball started the Tournament with a bang, winning 7-0 over UMBC. 

Arizona Softball exploded for seven runs as Sharlize Palacios and Jessie Harper went a combined 5-7 from the plate with six RBI’s to help the Wildcats advance to the winners’ bracket of the NCAA Regionals.

Facing off with UMBC in game one of the regionals on Friday even, the Wildcats would take to the Softball Diamond at Hillenbrand Memorial Stadium with Hanah Bowen on the mound for the Cats.

Arizona Wildcats

Starting slow, both teams would be scoreless after the first two innings, but that all changed in the third when Arizona would finally break this one open.

Tied 0-0, Harper would hit her 14th home run on the year (90th of her career), after Janelle Meono picked up a single, making it 2-0 Arizona.

The next inning, Arizona would pick up another run after a couple of throwing errors by UMBC to make it 3-0, Wildcats.

Thanks to some timely hitting, Arizona would add two more runs in the fifth, and another two runs in the sixth, eventually making it 7-0 Wildcats.

Bowen in the meantime would be dominant. Already showing promise this year as young ace, Hanah would toss seven, marvelous innings, surrendering just one hit while leaving UMBC scoreless.

With the dominant win, Arizona Softball advances and will face a tough Ole Miss team on Saturday afternoon.

Ole Miss was victorious over Villanova, picking up the 5-1 win over the Wildcats. Now they will face our Wildcats on Saturday afternoon.

Coming in, Arizona has seen some solid success against the Rebels, sporting a 3-0 record all-time. Their most recent win came in 2019 where Arizona won 9-1. That was also the last time the Wildcats made the College World Series.

Despite Arizona likely being the favorites here, the Wildcats can’t afford to overlook anyone this postseason. Arizona has struggled against some of the top teams this year, plus anything can happen at this point in the season, case and point, ASU being eliminated at their host Tournament.