Softball team upset twice in wild weekend

It marked the first time since March 27, 1993, that the Wildcats had been shut out, another 6-0 loss this time at the hands of Oklahoma State, and just the eighth loss at Hillenbrand Stadium since it opened that same year.

"Who would have thought we couldn't put a run on the board," Arizona head coach Mike Candrea said about his team's 6-0 loss to unranked Texas Tech Saturday.

The pair of setbacks somewhat overshadowed the pitching performance of senior Nancy Evans, who tossed her third career no hitter in Saturday's opening game, a 10-0 defeat of the Red Raiders.

"It's real exciting," Evans said of her effort. "Those kinds of things don't happen every day and things just felt real good for me."

Amidst the roller-coaster ride through the weekend, Candrea stressed the losses are not the end of the world and the team will make some changes to put things back on the right track.

"This is not anything to push a panic button about," Candrea said. "There are going to be some ups and downs and we need to work on correcting the problems instead of feeling sorry for ourselves."

In an attempt to stir things up, Candrea stuck freshman Nicole Giordano into the lineup in left field and moved freshman Lindsay Collins, who has struggled at the plate in recent weeks, to the designated player roll.

Giordano excelled in her three starts, racking up six hits in nine trips to the plate to go along with three RBI and three runs scored.

"My confidence has really gone up since coach has given me a chance to prove myself. Things can only get better from here," Giordano said.

Candrea made other changes as well to help light a fire under his team, switching seniors Lety Pineda and Leah Braatz in the number four and five spots and moving Collins down to the number seven hole.

"I'm not one to mess with my lineup too much but I thought a different look might refresh things a little bit," Candrea said.

The moves came after a split of a doubleheader with the Sooners which saw Arizona blow a 3-2 lead in the second game when freshman pitcher Becky Lemke served up back-to-back home runs by Ashli Barrett and Nicole Myers in the bottom of the sixth.

The Wildcats squeaked by the Sooners in the opener 6-4 thanks to a two-run homer by Braatz and a two-RBI single by freshman Toni Mascarenas.

Reflecting on the weekend, Evans said the losses will only help on the road ahead.

"We needed to have our eyes open and realize that not everyone is going to lay down and fold for us just because we're Arizona," Evans said. "We need to be ready for every game in order to win."