OKLAHOMA CITY -- Throughout the postseason, Arizona has shown the ability to battle back in games and find ways at the plate to scratch across runs when the team needs it the most.
In the top of the fourth inning Sunday, trailing by a run, Caitlin Lowe's squad was able to do just that and answered with a two-run Carlie Scupin single making to pull ahead.
However, the Longhorns would go on to score the next four runs, winning 5-2 while bringing the Wildcats' memorable postseason run come to an end.
The Wildcats saw most of the damage against them come in the third inning when starting pitcher Hanah Bowen allowed the first two batters to reach base. Lowe turned to Devyn Netz to try to get out of the jam, but on an 1-0 pitch, Texas hitter JJ Smith hit a three-run home run over the right field wall giving the Longhorns the 4-2 lead.
"I've expressed it to Bow (Bowen) throughout the postseason and throughout every tournament that we were winning to get here that I was so proud of her," catcher Sharlize Palacios said about catching for Bowen this postseason. "And the struggles that we faced during season and during conference, it all led up to her to be able to pitch this well in postseason.
"...So, I'm very proud of her. She went out the way Bow should have went out. She went out competing. She played through injury. I'm just so proud to be able to try to help her through that and be her biggest cheerleader behind the plate and just trying to help her and Devyn through all those games."
Bowen pitched 32 innings in the postseason and tossed 594 pitches while giving up 12 runs and posting an ERA of 2.63 after going through the regular season with an ERA of 4.10 in 107 2/3 innings of work.
In the postseason, Bowen tossed a complete-game shutout in Game 2 of the Columbia Regional against Missouri in what might be her best start of her Arizona career.
"I will never forget Hanah Bowen, and I told her that. I think you saw all heart today. I thought you saw all heart for the last -- honestly, this whole season she hasn't been at 100 percent all season," Lowe said when asked what Bowen has meant to the program. "She's had bumps and adversity thrown at her. And she's handled it with grace.
"...I think you saw her leave her heart out on the field today. It makes the rest of us want to fight that much harder for her."
Although Netz gave up the three-run home run to Smith and then went on to give up a run in the sixth, as a whole she was brilliant in the postseason for Arizona and a key piece in getting back to the WCWS.
Since the start of the postseason, Netz has pitched in 23 innings and posted an era of 1.22 while giving up four runs during that span. When the regular season ended, she had an era of 3.90 in 159 innings of work.
Netz's shining moments of the post season came first against Missouri where she pitched a complete-game shutout in a 1-0 win to advance to the Super Regionals. Then, she followed that up with complete game one-run performance in the clinching game against Mississippi State to send her team to the Women's College World Series.
"It's huge. You can't replace this experience, this environment. You can't create it at practice. You've got to be here," Lowe said about how this postseason will help Netz in the future. "And I think the way she stepped on the field and the way she threw her first pitch in relief showed me everything that I needed to know about Devyn Netz. She's a competitor, and she wants those moments.
"The reason she's hurting right now is because she put her heart and soul into it. That's kind of what you -- I know it's sad to see, but you want to see because she believed with her whole heart that she was throwing every pitch to the best of her ability, and I trust her to throw that pitch again, and she will here, and she expects to be back."
After Arizona got to Texas pitcher Hailey Dolcini in the fourth inning and scoring two runs off of her, coach Mike White turned to Estelle Czech with two runners on and one out to see if his team could get out of the jam. Czech came in and battled through two at-bats that took 15 pitches, reaching 3-2 counts, and got both Blaise Biringer and Sophia Carroll to strikeout.
"Yeah, I mean, I was getting a lot of pitches, and I was seeing her pretty good," Scupin said about her fourth inning two-run single. "It felt good to get the lead. But yeah, just wanted to execute."
Arizona was able to get a leadoff hit in the top of the seventh inning after Paige Dimler battled through an 11-pitch at-bat that ended with a single up the box. The Wildcats were unable to get another as their season came to an end on a game-ending ground ball double play.
Although the Wildcats fell short against Texas in the WCWS, their postseason run has set the tone of the future of the program and put away any doubt that people might've had about Arizona moving forward.
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