It just wasn't Arizona's night on Tuesday as the Cats fell to UCLA 15-9 as UCLA takes home the championship this year.  Congrats to the Cats and coach Mike Candrea and all of the Arizona Wildcats.  It's been a great season.  UCLA proved to be too much for the Cats and this game was over early. UCLA jumped out to a 7-1 lead after the top of the 4th inning.  The Cats put up 3 runs in the bottom of the 4th but UCLA answered with  7 tuns in the top of the 5th to seal the deal.

Stacie Chambers had another excellent game going 2-3 with a walk, 3 runs and 4 RBI's including a 2 run HR in the 5th inning and a 2 run HR in the bottom of the 7th.  Congrats to a great championship run for the Cats. 

(Chambers coming back next year!)

The Arizona Softball team dominated the 7th inning on Monday night, scoring 3 runs on 2 back to back homers by K'lee Arredondo and Stacie Chambers.   All looked rosy until a costly error in the bottom of the 7th and a walk off HR by UCLA in the bottom of the 8th.  Arizona fell 6-5. Arizona fell behind 4-2 after UCLA hit a line drive in the bottom of the sixth inning that just caught the foul line in right field and brought home two runs.  The Cats battled back in the 7th inning by getting a runner on by drawing a walk.  The rest was left up to Arredondo who drilled a line drive to left center field, just clearing the wall.  The next batter was Chambers who left no doubt about the destination of her home run.  As soon as she hit the ball, the dugout cleared.  Full extension. 

(Arredondo tied it up with a 2 run blast in the 7th!)

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Sorry it's a little late. 

Arizona battling tied 2-2 in the bottom of the 6th!

The Arizona Softball team fell to the Florida Gators 3-0 on Thursday night in Oklahoma City in front of 6,483 fans.  The Cats gambled by going with starter Lindsey Sisk instead of ace Sarah Akamine. Sisk only lasted 1 inning, giving up 3 runs, all earned, walking 2 and only striking out 1. Akamine came in after that and stifled the Gators by throwing the remaining 5 innings, blanking 7, and walking 0.

(Sisk was unable to go more than 1 inning)

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[Note by SoCalStites, 05/24/09 8:50 PM PDT ] #1 Florida advanced to the WCWS and will be matched up with Arizona. Game 1 is scheduled for Thursday at 6:00 PST. The entire bracket can be seen here. 

For the 21st time in the last 22 years, the Arizona Wildcats have advanced to the Women's College World Series after advancing in dramatic fashion with back to back wins over Stanford on Friday. After losing game one, due to two costly errors, in the 3 game series in the super regional final on Thursday, Arizona responded with their back against the wall. The Wildcats are now one of only 8 teams that has a chance to be national champions.

Lindsey Sisk came to the rescue in Game 3 and struck out 14 batters to lead the Wildcats to victory

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Here's a brief update on other sports at U of A: 

Softball:

The #11 Wildcats won in dramatic fashion on Sunday afternoon over the Oregon Ducks. Heading into the bottom of the 7th inning, Oregon held a 6-4 lead over the hometown Cats. Brittany Lestrapes led off the inning for Arizona with a walk to get the tying run on first and K'Lee Arredondo took the opportunity, tying the game with a two-run shot. The Ducks then pulled their starting pitcher to put in reliever, Brittany Rumfelt, to pitch to Jenae Leles (pictured above). It took only one pitch for Leles to connect with a game-winning blast to right-center. The win extends the Wildcats record to 31-7 overall and 3-0 in conference play. This weekend will be one of the toughest of the season for the Cats as they are set to play Washington, USC, and UCLA in consecutive days.

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Here's a brief update on how the other sports at U of A are doing:

Men's Swimming:

The Pac-10 Championships finished this weekend and the men's swimming team finished in 3rd overall. Stanford finished in 1st to win their 28th consecutive championship win. The Wildcat's Olympian swimmer, Jean Basson (pictured below), led the team in the championships with a win in the 500 freestyle, 2nd in the 200 freestyle, and a 5th place finish in the 1650. The swimmers that qualified for the NCAA Championships will compete in College Station, Texas from 3/26 to 3/28.

Softball:

The Wildcats had a busy weekend with doubleheaders on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, yet the Cats turned in an impressive 5 wins in that span and continue to play at a high level. Arizona started with two games against Minnesota on Friday and scored 30 runs between the two games to beat the Golden Gophers. On Saturday, they had a doubleheader against Creighton and it did not start as well as planned. In the first game the Cats lost 6-0 to the Bluejays, but they bounced back well and followed up the loss with a 19-2 win. In the last doubleheader of the weekend the Wildcats displayed their offensive skills with a 34 run showing against St. Joseph's.

The softball team will not get much rest though, with another doubleheader today against Simon Frasier.

Women's Basketball:

The regular season ended in heart breaking fashion for the Wildcats as they missed buzzer beating, tying attempts in both games. Most recently on Saturday the Wildcats faced off against the #9 ranked California Golden Bears. At halftime Arizona had the lead, but good shooting in the 2nd half from the Bears led them to a commanding lead. The Cats were not done and they fought all the way back to a 3 point deficit but failed to hit a final, tying attempt. 

Arizona finished with an 11-18 record overall and earned the #9 seed in the Pac-10 tournament. They will face the Washington State Cougars Thursday at 8:15 PST for the opportunity to keep their season alive and play Stanford Friday. The entire bracket and coverage information can be found here.