Grace Jenkins hit two home runs and drove in six and Arizona had just enough pitching to survive Marshall in a 7-5 victory in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday. Arizona advances to play Duke in the winner's bracket on Saturday at 10:00 AM Mountain Standard Time.
Jenkins hit the two HRs for Arizona while Marshall went deep four times, but three of them were solo shots. Jalen Adams started for Arizona and kept the Wildcats in the lead, throwing 5.1 innings, allowing four runs on six hits with two walks and a pair of strikeouts.
Arizona scored first on a two-out, three-run HR by Grace Jenkins in the bottom of the first inning that scored Serenti Trice and Tayler Biehl, who both reached base on singles. Bella Gerlach hit a solo HR in the top of the second and Sydni Burko went deep in the third for Marshall to cut the Arizona lead to 3-2.
The game remained scoreless until the bottom of the fifth inning. Biehl singled home Regan Shockey to set up Jenkins again. As the next batter, Jenkins hit a no-doubt HR to right field that scored Biehl and Trice again to give Arizona some space with a 7-2 lead.
Winner’s bracket bound! pic.twitter.com/VfH4yIGx9f
— Arizona Softball (@ArizonaSoftball) May 15, 2026
The five-run margin did not last long. Chandler Hoskins hit a two-run HR to cut the Arizona lead to 7-4 in the top of the sixth. Burko added her second HR of the game in the top of the seventh inning to cut the Arizona lead to 7-5. Janae Berry replaced Rylie Holder in the circle after the Burko HR.
DBerry retired all three batters she faced in the seventh inning to earn her second save and preserve the Arizona win. Arizona has won 13 consecutive opening games in an NCAA Tournament regional. Paige Maynard pitched all six innings for Marshall.
NO DOUBTER FOR GRACE JENKINS! 💥@gracee_jenkins crushes her second three-run bomb of the day! pic.twitter.com/kYHu4g2Zqf
— Arizona Softball (@ArizonaSoftball) May 15, 2026
Duke hit six HRs on Friday to earn a 10-1 walk-off run-rule win over Howard on Friday. Arizona is going to need better pitching to upset Durham Regional host on Saturday and advance to the Regional Final on Sunday. Duke was ninth nationally entering the NCAA Tournament, averaging 1.81 HRs per game.
Arizona was 168th nationally entering the NCAA Tournament with a 4.62 earned run average. Duke was 159th nationally with a 4.52 ERA. Expect a high-scoring game between Arizona and Duke, with the winner one victory away from advancing to the Super Regional.
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