PALM SPRINGS, Calif. -- After posting four scoreless innings, Arizona’s bats came alive in the fifth and didn't stop en route to an 8-0 mercy win over 21st-ranked Oklahoma State in six innings Friday night at the Cathedral City Classic.
UA hit four homers in the game, with freshmen combining for three of them. After entering the game with one home run on the season, freshman Chelsea Goodacre hit two in consecutive at-bats Friday. Shelby Pendley also hit her team-best sixth home run, and Brigette Del Ponte hit a two-run shot.
Kenzie Fowler (4-0) tossed a complete-game two hitter, striking out nine while allowing only four base runners. So far at the Cathedral City Classic, Fowler has pitched two shutouts and allowed just five hits in 12 innings.
The defense behind her was stellar, as the Wildcats recorded their seventh consecutive game without an error. Arizona’s longest such streak in 2011 was five games.
The victory was UA's fifth shutout win and seventh mercy victory of the season.
The teams’ stagnant offenses traded zeros on the scoreboard for the first four innings while Fowler and Oklahoma State counterpart Kat Espinosa engaged in a pitchers' duel.
Arizona had recorded just a single hit in the game when Kristen Arriola came to bat with one out in the fifth. She doubled down the left-field line to begin a rally that would eventually plate six Cats in the inning. Shelby Pendley and Chelsea Goodacre then hit back-to-back bombs to give Arizona a 3-0 lead. Karissa Buchanan was hit by a pitch and swiped second with two out before Chelsea Suitos brought her home with a single to left, and Del Ponte’s fourth home run of the season plated Suitos and gave UA a 6-0 lead.
Goodacre would homer again in the sixth inning, a two-run bomb that gave the Cats an 8-0 cushion.
Fowler retired the side in order in the bottom of the sixth to give Arizona the run-rule victory.
