The 19th-ranked Arizona softball team fell into a two-run hole in the top of the first and could never recover, dropping the opener of a three-game series with No. 13 Stanford 4-1 on Friday.
The Wildcats (21-9, 0-4 Pac-12) managed just two hits off Stanford ace Teagan Gerhart, who improved to 22-3 by striking out a third of the UA hitters she faced (nine of 27). The Cats' one run was their fewest since being shut out by then-No. 13 Georgia on February 23 in a 3-0 loss. Arizona’s two hits matched a season low that was also set in the Georgia shutout.
Stanford (27-6, 1-3 Pac-12). used two bases-loaded, two-out, two-run singles to plate its four runs in the game. Corey Hanewich came through in the first and Maya Burns delivered in the third to provide all the Cardinal's scoring.
Shelby Babcock took the loss for UA, as the sophomore allowed four runs, two earned, on eight hits while walking two and striking out four in six innings pitched. She fell to 11-2. Jessica Spigner pitched a perfect seventh inning in her first duty in the circle since February 19.
Brigette Del Ponte drove in Arizona’s only run on the team’s first triple of the season. She drove a ball off the center-field wall to score Hallie Wilson in the third inning but was then stranded at third base.
Chelsea Suitos had Arizona’s only other hit of the game. UA stranded five runners.
Two unearned runs for Stanford in the first inning put the Cats in an early hole. A two-out error by Del Ponte loaded the bases and extended the inning for the Cardinal, and Hanewich took advantage by singling home a pair.
Stanford loaded the bases again in the third on a couple of infield singles and a Babcock walk before Burns singled to shallow left field with two out to score two.
UA would get just one base runner the rest of the way, that on a two-out walk to Lini Koria in the bottom of the seventh. It appeared as though the Cats would get the tying run to the plate in the seventh when Alex Lavine was hit by a pitch, but she was ruled to have stepped into the ball. Lavine then flew out to center field to end the game.
The loss dropped Arizona to 0-4 in conference play for the first time since the Pac-West became the Pac-10 in 1988.
