By
Brett Erickson
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Junior pitcher earns Player of the Week honors after stellar weekend
Games against Pacific 10 Conference opponents are supposed to be the toughest of the season for the No. 2 Arizona softball team.
Somebody forgot to tell that to Jennie Finch.
Finch, a junior from La Mirada, Calif., continued her torrid start in conference games this weekend in the Wildcats' two-game sweep of Arizona State.
In Friday's 3-0 victory, Finch went all 11 innings in the pitching circle, striking out 12 Sun Devils and allowing just two hits. On top of that, she also hit the game-winning home run, her 10th of the season.
Finch (16-0) continued to torment Arizona State Saturday by pitching the final two frames of the nine-inning game to pick up her second win of the weekend.
The weekend's performances earned Finch the Pacific 10 Conference's Player of the Week award yesterday, to the relief of UA head coach Mike Candrea.
"She had a tremendous weekend," Candrea said Saturday. "If she's not the Pac-10 Player of the Week, then something's wrong."
In Arizona's seven conference games, Finch is hitting .333 (8-for-24), while the team is batting just .198 (40-for-202).
As impressive as Finch has been at the plate, her outings in the circle have been more dominant.
In four Pac-10 games, Finch is 4-0 and has allowed just five hits. In 27 innings of work, she has yet to allow a run while striking out 36 batters.
Finch shut out No. 1 UCLA April 7 and tossed her fifth career no-hitter against No. 16 Oregon State on April 1.
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With most Pac-10 games being decided by a run or two, Candrea has stressed the importance of excelling in situations where one run could decide the game.
His philosophy of trying to manufacture a run showed up in the ninth inning of a scoreless tie Friday against ASU.
After senior Toni Mascarenas singled on an 0-2 pitch, Candrea brought senior Erika Hanson to hit for Leneah Manuma, who is second on the team with 14 home runs.
Hanson beat out a slap hit to the shortstop to put runners on first and second base. Finch followed with a line-drive single to left field, but Mascarenas did not score because she had to freeze at second to be sure Finch's hit cleared the infield.
While Hanson's pinch-hit single went for naught - Arizona's next two hitters struck out - it did show that the Wildcats plan to use their short game to complement their power.
"We were really working all week on our short game because when you get into (the) Pac-10 (schedule), it's going to be 1-0 games," Hanson said. "I'll live for at-bats like that if that's what it takes to win it all."
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The goat and hero switched places in a matter of two innings Saturday night.
In the top of the seventh inning, ASU's Missy Hixon appeared to deliver the knock-out punch, hitting a solo home run that bounced off freshman right fielder Kim Balkan's glove. The long ball put ASU up 3-2.
With two outs in the bottom of the inning, UA senior Lauren Bauer hit a hard ground ball to Hixon at second base that would have ended the game. Hixon booted the ball, allowing Bauer to reach base.
UA senior Nicole Giordano followed with a game-tying double to right field.
Balkan completed the goat-to-hero transformation with her home run to lead off the bottom of the ninth inning.
"I knew she was going to come inside because she did the pitch before and didn't get the (strike) call," Balkan said. "It was a pretty good guess."
