Arizona has one of the top offensive lineups in all of college softball, but there weren't many glimpses of that Thursday night as the Wildcats opened up the Women's College World Series in Oklahoma City. Alabama pitcher Montana Fouts was nearly untouchable as he struck out a career-high 16 batters in what ended up as a 5-1 loss for UA

The 11th-seeded Wildcats had just two hits in the game as the Arizona hitters struggled to catch up to the speed from Fouts throughout the game. Left fielder Janelle Meoño and shortstop Jessie Harper were the only UA players to touch the Alabama pitcher.

Meoño singled to lead off the fourth inning before Harper hit her 92nd career home run in the seventh inning to give the Wildcats some momentum heading into the elimination bracket.

"My hat goes off to her," UA head coach Mike Candrea said about the outstanding performance from Fouts in the circle for the Crimson Tide. "She threw a hell of a ballgame. We really didn't have any answers for the majority of that game. I think early we were just not catching up to the speed, or we were actually making ourselves react quicker than what we needed to instead of trying to slow it down and get good pitches.

"I thought early in the game we looked at pitches we probably could have hit, gave her the opportunity to throw the rise ball up in the zone and we started chasing. She's a good pitcher. Seventy-two miles an hour is not easy to hit. Even if it's straight. Well, Montana has not only the velocity, but she has good movement. We knew it was going to be a challenge. I thought we would obviously be a little better than we were today. We just couldn't figure it out, ran out of innings."

Harper was the bright spot for the Wildcats late in the game as her line drive home run to left center provided the team with some excitement on a difficult day at the plate. The senior is now tied with former UA slugger Katiyana Mauga for second on the all-time NCAA home run list.

The UA veteran shortstop has downplayed her chase for the record throughout the season, and Thursday she once again decided to point to the bigger picture for the Wildcats over her latest personal accomplishment.

"I told myself that I'm getting Dejah [Mulipola] another at-bat," Harper said of what was going through her head before the home run. "Dejah is super special. I love watching her at the plate. I trust in her 100%. If we could get Dejah another at-bat, it's going to be good.

"That was my mindset."

The lack of offense from Arizona in the loss hampered a strong performance in the circle from pitcher Hanah Bowen. The veteran right-hander only made a few mistakes in the loss, but because of what Fouts was doing on the other side it was just enough of an opening for Alabama.

Bowen was in the circle for four innings Thursday. She surrendered two runs on four hits to go with three strikeouts and a pair of walks in her fourth loss of the season.

"She had a couple mistakes, but overall competed, did a good job," Candrea said of Bowen's performance. "I felt like if we could go into the last innings with a 2-0 ballgame, it would be a little bit different.

"... We're at the College World Series. This is what happens. We need to just kind of reset and move forward."

Alabama struck first as catcher Bailey Hemphill took advantage of an Arizona error to score the first run. She hit a home run in the third inning to double the lead before the Crimson Tide broke the game open with three runs sixth inning against UA pitcher Alyssa Denham, who cam on in relief of Bowen in the fifth inning.

Arizona will now have Friday off as it prepares to face Florida State in the elimination bracket after the Seminoles lost to UCLA in the final game Thursday.

"I'm super confident in our team," Meoño said. "I trust every one of them. I believe in every one of them. They all have skills to play this game. They're really good at it.

"I'm not worried. I feel that we've prepared for this moment, and we're going to be fine."

The Wildcats' next game is set to begin at 11:30 a.m. MST on Saturday.

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