Arizona softball notes: Taylor McQuillin featured in SI, Chelsea Goodacre tearing up NPF, Pac-12 improving

If you pick up a copy of Sports Illustrated at your local convenience store this week, you’ll see a familiar face in it.

Former Arizona Wildcats ace Taylor McQuillin was featured as part of a follow up to SI’s Faces In The Crowd edition:

Here’s what the accompanying excerpt says:

Taylor McQuillin appeared in the March 28, 2016 edition of Faces In the Crowd after leading Arizona to a three-game sweep at the Maverick Classic in Arlington, Texas as a freshman. Legally blind in her left as a result of complications from Duane Syndrome—a misalignment of the eye that limits its movement—the lefthander led Division I with 15 shutouts as a junior, then had a 24-8 record with a 1.52 ERA as a senior to lift the Wildcats to their 23rd World Series appearance. Next up: McQuillin’s rookie season with the Cleveland Comets of the National Pro Fastpitch league. The Mission Viejo, California native was the sixth pick in April’s draft. The biggest thing for me growing up legally blind was continuing to be my own hype man,” McQuillin said. “I had to give myself confidence to achieve anything.”

McQuillin currently has a 2.80 ERA in 45 innings with the Comets. She is also playing for Team Mexico as it tries to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

I caught up with her a couple weeks ago to see what that’s like. You can find that story here.

Chelsea is Good(acre)

Former UA catcher Chelsea Goodacre is tearing up the NPF this season, hitting .338 with 16 RBI, the third-most in the league.

This is Goodacre’s fifth season in the NPF, all with the USSSA Pride. The Pride are the second-best team in the six-team league, only behind Danielle O’Toole and the Chicago Bandits.

Goodacre hit 71 homers at Arizona, fifth-best in school history when she departed the program. She was a second-team All-American in her senior season and a three-time All-Pac-12 First Team honoree.

Pac-12 already looking better

2019 was a down year for the Pac-12 after Arizona State and Oregon, two schools usually in the Women’s College World Series hunt, lost several key players to transfer before the season. (Oregon lost its entire pitching staff.)

ASU couldn’t get past Regionals, while Oregon, the reigning Pac-12 champions, failed to reach the postseason for the first time since 2009.

Don’t expect the Ducks to be down for long. Oregon added three high-level transfers this offseason in Brooke Yanez (UC Davis), Mya Felder (New Mexico State) and Samaria Diaz (New Mexico State).

Yanez was the Big West Pitcher of the Year and a second-team All-American in 2019. The sophomore went 25-7 with a 1.03 ERA, logging 273 strikeouts in 203.2 innings.

The WAC Freshman of the Year, Felder hit .357 with 12 home runs, 16 doubles and a team-high 46 RBIs. The WAC Pitcher of the Year, Diaz went 16-9 with a 2.10 ERA and 228 strikeouts in 177 innings.

Meanwhile, ASU added Alabama pitcher Madison Preston to help cure its pitching woes.

Speaking of transfers, UA outfielder Taryn Young is still the only Wildcat in the transfer portal. The junior has played in nine games in two seasons at Arizona. It remains to be seen if she will actually leave the UA.