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Wildcats squeak by Simon Fraser

Victory is supposed to be sweet, but the Arizona softball team has a bitter taste in its mouth after a poor performance against Simon Fraser yesterday.

"I don't know what it was, I mean it could have been anything, we weren't focused," junior pitcher Teresa Ayoub said. "We could have been tired, we could have had other things on our mind, it's just who knows. You come out and sometimes you don't play that great, it is a game of failure."

The No. 4 Wildcats overcame poor defense and baserunning to squeak out a 2-1 victory against Simon Fraser of British Columbia, Canada.

The win against the defending NAIA national champion Clan increased UA's win streak to 13-games and gave the team a 14-1 overall record.

Even with the victory, UA head coach Mike Candrea was clearly upset with his team's performance, lecturing his players about pride and playing Arizona softball for about 25 minutes after the game.

"I think there is a certain state of mind you have to be in to play this game and to play this game well," Candrea said. "I just don't think we had many people who were in that state of mind. What you saw was a result of that, I think this team knows it and I think this team will learn from it."

Arizona committed two errors in the contest, including one in the sixth inning that led to an unearned run, the only Simon Fraser run of the game.

One of the lone bright spots for the Wildcats was the pitching of sophomore Jennie Finch, who was dominate in the circle, striking out eight Clan batters while walking only one.

"Pitching, I felt okay, I just want to practice right now," a disappointed Finch said. "I think we just came out not very prepared and not ready to play."

Finch (6-0) used a heavy dose of fastballs and change-ups to baffle the Clan hitters, who managed only three hits.

With Finch shutting down the Simon Fraser offense, Arizona was hoping to rely on its hot offense - which outscored its opponents at the Arizona Softball Classic 55-1 over the weekend - to put the game out of reach.

The offense never materialize though, as Clan senior pitcher Kathy Iggulden pitched a strong game, holding UA to only seven hits and two runs.

"I think we were really excited about our last weekend and we needed to focus on today's game instead of the past. I think we walked out here thinking we were going to get out of here in five innings but we can't do that," Finch said. "We were doing so good and our last three weeks have been awesome and to take a step back like this is just terrible."

On the offensive side, Finch drove in junior outfielder Lauren Bauer for the first Wildcat run of the day, with an RBI single in the second inning.

Bauer was also productive offensively as she went two-for-three on the day with two stolen bases.

Arizona's winning run came in the fifth inning as junior shortstop Allison Andrade led off the inning with a double to the left-center wall. Andrade moved to third on junior third baseman Erika Hanson's bunt single.

Hanson was perfect at the plate in the game, collecting two singles in her two at-bats.

Junior outfielder Nicole Giordano followed Hanson with grounder to second base which brought in Andrade, the winning run.

"We have been playing very, very well," he said. "We just need to learn from this and move forward."