Lemke nearly unhittable while bats continue to feast

Leigh-Anne Brown Arizona Daily Wildcat Senior catcher Leah Braatz dives for a foul ball during the Wildcats' double header against McNeeseState yesterday. Braatz hit an opening-game-winning grand slam to help Arizona roll to wins of 11-0 and 13-0 over the Cowboys.

Arizona is not just staying alive in the early going but rather flourishing while devouring every opponent it faces.

The No.1 ranked Wildcats (18-0) finished another weekend sweep of tournament competition by blowing out McNeese State (4-14), 11-0 and 13-0, in the finale of this weekend's Wildcat Invitational at Hillenbrand Stadium.

Freshman starting pitcher Becky Lemke, who came within two outs of tossing her first career no hitter in the opening game of yesterday's double header, also did some relief work on Saturday, pitching four innings of scoreless ball in an 8-3 win over Kansas.

"I like relieving," Lemke said. "I really like the pressure of it, but whether I start or come off the bench I am just going to try my hardest to pitch the best I can."

Assistant coach Stacy Hill, who serves as the Wildcats pitching coach, said Lemke has come along way and just needs game experience to continue her improvement.

"We (the coaching staff) have done as much as we can in the bullpen and now the rest is just sharpening up the little things," Hill said.

In the first game, Arizona put single runs on the board in the first and second innings before erupting for five runs in the fifth behind a number of heads-up plays.

Senior Alison McCutcheon led off the inning with a slap infield single and took an extra base on the play when the Cowboy infielders failed to cover second.

Freshman Lauren Bauer followed with a sharp base hit to right field, scoring McCutcheon.

Three batters later, senior Lety Pineda hit a towering home run to the last row of the left field bleachers to put the Wildcats up 5-0.

Sophomore Katie Swan finished off the fifth-inning outburst with a bloop single into right, scoring freshman Toni Mascarenas, who doubled in pinch runner Nicole Giordano.

Senior Leah Braatz ended the game in the bottom of the sixth with a line-drive grand slam over the 1994 National Championship sign in center field. The home run was Braatz's fifth of the year.

In the night cap, Arizona used a seven-run fifth to put the game out of reach.

Giordano went 2 for 4 with three RBI and Bauer, pinch hitting for senior Nancy Evans, hit a 2-run triple in the top of the fifth to cap the scoring for the Wildcats.

Arizona defeated Colorado State twice Friday, 9-1 and 14-1, behind more strong pitching by Lemke and home runs by senior Tiana Hejduk, Pineda and Evans.

Saturday, the Wildcats took out Kansas by scores of 8-0 and 8-3, as Evans, Lemke and freshman Teresa Ayoub combined to yield just seven hits. Mascarenas hit her second grand slam of the year in the second game of the double header.

Arizona hosts the Hillenbrand Invitational this weekend and will compete against Texas Tech, San Diego State and Oklahoma.