Arizona and Santa Clara will open the Tucson Regional on Friday at 4:30 Mountain Standard Time. Arizona is making its 37th NCAA Tournament appearance and Santa Clara is making its inaugural trip. Grand Canyon and Mississippi are playing in the second game of the Tucson Regional on Thursday at 7 PM MST.
Arizona head coach Caitlin Lowe would not reveal her pitching plans for the weekend. She could elect to start ace Devyn Netz on Saturday with Miranda Stoddard starting on Friday versus Santa Clara. Cari Ferguson, the West Coast Conference Freshman and Pitcher of the Year, has a 1.89 earned run average in 2025.
Santa Clara won the five major WCC awards. In addition to Ferguson, Cairah Curran was the WCC Player of the Year, Taryn Clements the Defensive Player of the Year and Gina Carbonatto the Coach of the Year. Netz was the Big XII Player of the Year for Arizona as a dual-threat player in the circle and at the plate.
Arizona and Santa Clara are playing for the first time. Santa Clara lost all three of its 2025 games versus power conference opponents with losses to Boston College, California and Stanford of the ACC. Arizona was 3-0 versus Colorado State and Stanford. Santa Clara was 1-2 versus the Cardinal and Rams.
Arizona has advanced out of its own regional 25 out of the 26 times it has hosted. Overall, Arizona has advanced out of the regional 33 times. Arizona enters the NCAA Tournament with eight wins in its last 10 games. Texas Tech beat Arizona 4-0 in the Big XII Championship Game on Saturday in the Wildcats' most recent game.
Santa Clara finished its season by winning their final two games at Oregon State. The Broncos enter the NCAA Tournament 32-20. Arizona has a 45-11 record. The Wildcats enter the NCAA Tournament ranked in the top 20 nationally in 17 categories. Arizona is eighth with a .347 batting average.
All of the games in the Tucson Regional are available on ESPN+ with former Wildcat Kenzie Fowler and Chuckie Kempf calling the games. Grand Canyon and Mississippi will be on ESPNU, with games on networks additional to ESPN+ to be announced.