Arizona celebrated Senior Day on Saturday honoring Hanah Bowen, Peanut Martinez and Bailey Thompson (Javier Morales/AllSportsTucson.com)
Now comes the nervous wait to see if Arizona will make the 64-team field of the NCAA tournament after the Wildcats lost their fifth series of the Pac-12 season with the 4-3 loss to Stanford on Saturday on Senior Day at Hillenbrand Stadium.
Arizona, which had an RPI ranking of No. 41 entering Saturday, has the longest active streak of postseason appearances in the nation with 34, dating to 1987.
The last time the Wildcats did not advance to the NCAA tournament was in Mike Candrea’s first year as coach in 1986.
Senior pitcher Hanah Bowen, who pitched a complete game in Saturday’s loss, Carlie Scupin and coach Caitlin Lowe all took the wait-and-see stance when asked if Arizona (33-20, 8-16 Pac-12) has done eough this season to make the NCAA tournament field.
Selection Sunday is at 4 p.m. on ESPN2.
“I’m not sure yet but I’m excited to see where we’ll be,” Bowen said when asked about Arizona’s postseason chances.
“We’ll be watching tomorrow and whatever happens, happens, but I think the important part is if we do keep that seventh-inning mentality,” Scupin said, eluding to Arizona rallying for two runs in the seventh Saturday against Stanford before falling short.
“You want to go into (Selection Sunday) making it undeniable, and I think that’s not us this year,” said Lowe, in her first season after replacing Candrea. “We’re just hoping for more games to play in and I really felt like that seventh inning, we were just scraping and scraping and doing everything we can.
“I think that’s the type of team we have to be regardless of postseason or not. That’s the kind of softball we have to play all the time.”
The Wildcats showed some fight against Stanford (36-19, 11-13 Pac-12) in the bottom of the seventh inning after scoring only one run in the previous 13 innings of the series.
Speedsters Jasmine Perezchica and Janelle Meoño hit consecutive infield singles to start the rally.
With one out, Allie Skaggs was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Izzy Pacho then reached on a fielder’s choice grounder to second, scoring Perezchica. Blaise Biringer pinch-ran for Pacho before Scupin came to the plate.
Scupin hit a double to left-center field scoring Meoño and moving Biringer to third. The hit traveled close to the warning track and eluded diving centerfielder Taylor Gindlesperger.
“It felt pretty good off my bat,” Scupin said. “I was just hoping too that nobody caught it to score a couple of runs.”
Biringer was not sent …….