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Lastrapes "Worst feeling in the … world."
Turning points
A look at 10 games that shaped the Arizona Wildcats' softball season:
• Feb. 22 — Ranked No. 11, the Wildcats defeat Utah 6-1 for their season-best 12th win a row. The UA outscored opponents 53-5 in six Wildcat Invitational games.
• March 4 — In the first game of a doubleheader, the Wildcats defeat UTEP 20-1 despite batting in only four innings.
• April 19 — A Sam Banister home run helps sink Cal 7-5 at Hillenbrand Stadium. In sweeping three games against Stanford and the Golden Bears — by a score of 30-11 — Arizona wallops nine home runs to maintain first place in the Pac-10.
• April 29 — The Wildcats defeat ASU twice, finishing a rain-shortened game by winning 3-2 and then 10-6 in Tempe.
• May 10 — Seeded No. 9 in the NCAA tournament, the UA learns it will travel to Louisville, Ky., for the regional, and then likely Stanford for the super regional. Left fielder Brittany Lastrapes later says she is "definitely livid."
• May 15 — Catcher Stacie Chambers, the nation's home run leader, hits the UA's NCAA-record 126th home run in a regional game against Tennessee-Martin. The UA broke the 2001 Wildcats' mark in 331 fewer at-bats. "I don't think that they ever gave a national championship on home runs," UA coach Mike Candrea says. "It's games that you win."
• May 16 — Chambers posts one of the best postseason games in UA history, hitting two homers and driving in nine to improve her NCAA-leading totals to 31 homers and 96 RBIs. Up 10 with the bases loaded, Chambers is walked by Louisville coach Sandy Pearsall who said she "didn't want to throw to her, honestly." The UA beats host Louisville 18-4.
• May 22 — Facing elimination, the Wildcats beat host Stanford twice in one day, the final victory coming in a stunning performance by seldom-used sophomore Lindsey Sisk, who strikes out a career-high 14. "I finally proved to myself I can do it," she says.
• May 28 — Candrea starts Sisk in the Women's College World Series against No. 1 Florida, and she allows three runs in one inning in a 3-0 loss. "We kinda rolled the dice," Candrea says.
• May 30 — The Wildcats are destroyed 14-0 and eliminated from the WCWS by Alabama. It marks the worst UA loss in its history and the most runs ever scored in the WCWS. "Tough day at the ballpark," Candrea says.

UA Sports

ua softball

Without a No. 1 pitcher, Cats fail to reach top

By Patrick Finley
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 06.02.2009
Bleary-eyed and devastated, Brittany Lastrapes promised Saturday the Arizona Wildcats would not end their season the same way again.
"I came to Arizona because I'm going to win a national championship," the UA left fielder said. "This is the worst feeling in the whole world — to know that we lost 14-0 in our last game doesn't show all the hard work we put in all year.
"If I have to push myself even harder and push the team even harder, I will, because I'm not going to do this again, I promise. I can't. This sport means so much to me."
In reality, the Wildcats' future postseasons probably don't hang on her.
She's not a pitcher.
For all the bluster that came with a record-breaking offensive season — the UA set an NCAA record with 134 home runs and led the nation with 7.92 runs per game — the Wildcats, for the first time ever in the Women's College World Series, lacked an ace pitcher.
As such, the team suffered its most humbling trip to Oklahoma City in 21 visits, being eliminated 14-0 by Alabama to cap a 46-17 season.
"At this level, you have to have more than that," UA coach Mike Candrea said. "You have to have the ability, and you have to be able to make the ball move and be able to hit your spots.
"When it gets to here, it's pitching."
The Wildcats had three pitchers — the equivalent, in softball parlance, of having three quarterbacks.
In reality, they didn't have one.
Before this season, the team's worst ERA since joining the NCAA in 1983 was 1.77, in 1996.
This year's team finished at 2.98.
How unusual was this season? The Wildcats' ERA this year was at least twice as high as all but six other years in school history.
In two games of this season's WCWS, Arizona gave up 17 runs, as many as it had allowed in Oklahoma City the past four years — or 19 games — combined.
Candrea felt obligated, especially in the postseason, to mix and match his pitchers' three different styles to try to get outs.
Through 63 games, he never felt completely comfortable with a single pitcher.
"We have tested them," he said. "But we have just not had the consistency where you feel like you can hang onto this kid and they can get themselves out of it."
Junior Sarah Akamine was the Wildcats' No. 1 starter most of the season, and led the team with a 22-8 record and 2.52 ERA.
Senior Jen Martinez found most of her success coming out of the bullpen. Sophomore Lindsey Sisk, save for one sparkling super regional win at Stanford, was underwhelming.
Akamine and her balky right shoulder came to Tucson specifically because she didn't want to pitch. Martinez, a transfer from Cal State-Dominguez Hills, was so wild during her redshirt season last year that the team refused to use her in drills.
The staff was cobbled together by new pitching coach Teresa Wilson out of necessity.
The Wildcats were still patching a hole left two years ago when star prospect Amanda Williams failed to qualify for the 2007 team because of academic issues.
Williams, who has yet to pitch in Division I, would have been a junior this season, bridging the gap from Alicia Hollowell and Taryne Mowatt to Canyon del Oro High School star Kenzie Fowler.
The 2008 Gatorade National Player of the Year will enroll next year.
The Wildcats' offense will lose only two regulars — seniors Sam Banister and Jenae Leles — from a team that finished second in the country with a .339 batting average.
The team will return Lastrapes, a first-team All-American, and catcher Stacie Chambers, who led the NCAA with 31 home runs this season. In the playoffs, Candrea said, "the numbers go down a little bit."
As such, a team needs a star pitcher.
This year, the Wildcats didn't have one.
"I think the next two years we have a couple people who can come in," Candrea said, "and give us a little more."
On StarNet: For more on UA softball and other Arizona athletics, visit azstarnet.com/wildcats
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