Softball off to quick start with easy weekend wins

Brian D. Rothschild Arizona Daily Wildcat Arizona senior catcher Leah Braatz takes a swing in Saturday's 9-0 win over Illinois-Chicago. Braatz, with four home runs and 12 RBIs, led the Wildcats to a 4-0 record in the round-robin Arizona Softball Classic.

Arizona finished the weekend undefeated with four wins, two each against New Mexico State and Illinois-Chicago in the Arizona Softball Classic at Hillenbrand Stadium.

The Wildcats (4-0) proved in their first competition of the year that this season's team will be fun for all ages as seniors Leah Braatz and Nancy Evans combined with several freshmen to help the Wildcats destroy their opponents by a combined score of 45-4.

"We have a lot of kids that are capable of competing this year," said Arizona head coach Mike Candrea. "The one thing you're looking for this time of year is to get some innings and get some at-bats and get as many people in the game as you can. I think we accomplished those things this weekend."

Braatz finished the round-robin tournament with nine hits in 14 at-bats, with four home runs and 12 RBI, while Evans pitched two complete games, giving up only one run and striking out 16.

She scattered nine hits, all singles, and walked none.

"This was a good weekend for everybody to get used to each other on the field," Evans said. "Slowly but surely we are taking the steps to become more of a team. That just takes games."

The Wildcats' freshmen contingent chipped in with outstanding performances, including pitchers Becky Lemke and Teresa Ayoub, as well as Lindsey Collins, Toni Mascarenas and Lauren Bauer.

Lemke and Ayoub each pitched the Wildcats to a victory in their collegiate debuts, with Lemke giving up one run and four hits while striking out eight batters in Friday's 14-1 defeat of New Mexico State.

Ayoub struck out the first three batters she faced and went on to give up just two runs, neither of which were earned in a 12-2 win over the Flames of Illinois-Chicago.

Collins, Mascarenas and Bauer each hit a home run and the Wildcats hit eight total home runs over the weekend.

"I was very pleased with the freshmen, they were outstanding," Candrea said. "That's a really tough thing to put the uniform on and go out there with stands full."

Candrea also said he will continue to shuffle his lineup in the games leading up to conference play to allow plenty of playing time for the younger players.

Arizona travels to Tempe this weekend to play in the Coca-Cola Classic hosted by Arizona State.

"The only downfall about getting rained out is we need the games," Candrea said. "We don't need rest, but we'll get plenty of games next weekend against some better competition."