Arizona had just enough hitting and Miranda Stoddard and Devyn Netz combined to shut out Kansas in a 2-0 win on Friday afternoon in Lawrence. The Wildcats improved to 34-7 overall and 11-5 in the Big XII with the win. Kansas fell to 17-18 overall and 4-9 in the Big XII with the loss.
Arizona earned the only run they needed on a Jenna Sniffen home run on the first pitch of the third inning. A Kaiah Altmeyer single in the top of the fifth inning scored pinch runner Zaedi Tagalog to double the Arizona lead and close the scoring on Friday.
Stoddard pitched six innings, allowing four hits and two walks with three strikeouts to improve to 9-0 this season. Netz struck out the side in the seventh on 13 pitches. Olivia Bruno pitched a complete game, allowing the two earned runs on seven hits with four walks and four strikeouts to fall to 3-2.
Presley Limbaugh had two hits in three at-bats to pace the Kansas lineup. September Flanagan and Campbell Bagshaw had the only other hits for Kansas on Friday. Tayler Biehl had two hits for Arizona and Regan Shockey and Altmeyer had one hit each for Arizona on Friday.
Kansas had its best chance to score in the bottom of the seventh inning. Anna Soles walked to lead off the inning. Flanagan followed with a single to bring the winning run to the plate with no outs. Netz struck out Bagshaw, Natalie Marshall and Emma Tatum swinging to give Arizona its third consecutive win.
Arizona and Kansas will play
at noon Mountain Standard Time on Saturday and 10:00 AM on Sunday to conclude the three-game series this weekend. First place Texas Tech is at Arizona for a three-game series next weekend from Thursday through Saturday. Friday will be on FS1 and Saturday is on ESPN2.