(Oklahoma City) -- Arizona has gone through the postseason going 5-0 while winning three games by two runs of less and have left 32 opposing runners on base. Thursday against Oklahoma State, things looked to be going the same way until a three-run sixth innings by the Cowgirls gave them a two-run lead late in the game. The Wildcats were able to get the tying run to the plate but fell 4-2 falling to the loser's bracket in the Women's College World Series.
"I thought Bow (Hanah Bowen) had a couple of strikeouts that were right there, and they ended up being walks, and that changes the game," coach Caitlin Lowe said. "It's just that much, you know? I think that's where Shar (Sharlize Palacios) hit the nail on the head. It's a game of inches, and today it went their way, and tomorrow it's going to go our way hopefully."
Bowen got the start for Arizona (38-21) and through the first five innings of the game found a way to work around base runners and keep her team in the game. In the fifth inning OSU loaded the bases with two outs on a hit batter and two walks with the Wildcats leading 2-1 and, in that moment, she was able to induce the flyout to left field to get out of the jam.
But living on the edge caught up to Bowen in the sixth when she walked Oklahoma State (47-12) hitter Miranda Elish to lead off the inning and then went on to give up a double and the home run to Karli Petty before being pulled for Devyn Netz.
"I think they just capitalized on pitches," Bowen said about the sixth inning home run. "Especially in the right moments."
After the pitching change, Netz was able to get two quick outs before giving up a single, but them made quick work of the next batter by getting a groundout to end the inning. In total she tossed 11 pitches while striking out a batter in her one inning of work.
"I thought when she got out of that, it rolled her into the next one, and I thought she had the stuff to get through them," Lowe said when asked if she thought about a pitching change. "Really, I think Shar said it perfectly, they capitalized on one pitch. We've been living on that one pitch this entire postseason, and they had it tonight, and I thought Shar had it with her home run, and we put ourselves in good situations. We didn't get the big hit when we needed to."
Offensively Arizona scored its two runs of a Palacios home run in the fifth inning in a 0-1 count giving her team the 2-1 lead over OSU. She ended the game going 1-for-4 at the plate.
"Definitely a lot of advice from Cait going into that at-bat. It was definitely not getting my head down and instead just getting ready for the next at-bat," Palacios said when asked about her approach at the plate during the home run. "I definitely slowed it down, and it was a really great feeling to be able to do that for my team and get us ahead."
As a team, Arizona was able to collect five hits, but left seven runners on base in large part due to the ability of pitcher Kelly Maxwell to get key strikeouts when needed. Maxwell racked up 14 strikeouts on 126 pitches.
"I think we're seeing one of the best pitchers in the country. That's the big part. She's a really good pitcher, and there's going to be strikeouts," Palacios said when asked about the team's high strikeout total. "A big part of our momentum shift was when Sophia Carroll got that amazing up-the-middle hit, and everyone kind of opened their eyes like, hey, we can pass the bat. Let's do this. We're facing one of the best, and they were facing one of the best too."
Arizona now heads to the loser's bracket and will face Pac-12 foe Oregon State on Friday at 6:30 (MST) with the game being televised on ESPN2.
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