No. 14 Utah Softball Stopped By No. 1 Arizona, 5-1

Thursday, April 13

Salt Lake City, Utah

7:00 PM

University of Utah

26-8, 0

Arizona

41-1, 0

Arizona

Utah

No. 14 Utah Softball Stopped By No. 1 Arizona, 5-1

4/13/2017 9:31 PM | Softball

Box Score

Utes get to O'Toole late, but not enough in opener

SALT LAKE CITY – No. 14 Utah Softball dropped the opener of a three-game series with No. 1 Arizona on Thursday evening, 5-1. The loss snapped a five-game winning streak in conference play for the Utes.

In the second, Katie Donovan issued a two-out walk and Tamara Statman made her pay with a well-placed triple to center that rolled all the way to the wall.

Statman hurt the Utes again in the fourth, with a two-run double to the right-center gap. Leadoff hitter Mandie Perez eventually came to the plate and also popped a two-run double to center for a 5-0 UA advantage.

Donovan struck out six in her four innings of work but was saddled with the loss. Hailey Hilburn entered in relief and shut out the 'Cats over the final three frames.

Arizona entered the game leading the nation in home runs and slugging percentage, as well as ranking second in the nation in scoring and batting average.

Meanwhile, Utah strung together a couple hits off Arizona's Danielle O'Toole, who entered with a record of 21-1 on the season, but could not find any runs until late.

The Utes finally broke through in the seventh as Heather Bowen started things with a double. After a Bridget Castro single, Kelly Martinez continued her strong run at the plate with a RBI double to create a little drama in the final frame.

The Utes and Wildcats are back at it tomorrow afternoon with first pitch slated for 4 p.m. You can watch the game live on the Pac-12 Networks, stream it via pac-12.com/live or listen on UtahUtes.com and KUTE