Mission accomplished
by Anthony Gimino on Jun. 07, 2006, under SportsCats complete turnaround by winning seventh title
Arizona's Laine Roth (24) and pitcher Alicia Hollowell celebrate after capturing the NCAA softball championship in Oklahoma City.
OKLAHOMA CITY – Arizona was shooting for par, and got excellence.
The Wildcats, capping a turnaround that Mike Candrea admitted could have been one of his best coaching jobs ever, won their seventh national softball title Tuesday night, beating Northwestern 5-0 to sweep the best-of-three championship round at the Women’s College World Series.
After the awards ceremony, after the players dumped ice water on their coach, after the news conferences and after the most smiles ever from ace Alicia Hollowell, Candrea was left holding a sheet of paper that he had taped, over and over, in the dugout for the past six weeks.
It was part of a motivational message he delivered when his team was struggling, detailing a path to success: Preparation, Action, Response.
PAR.
“I feel good that we got this team to this,” Candrea said. “A month-and-a-half ago we had oil spurting all over the place and nuts and bolts falling off. This is very gratifying. I didn’t know we could win, but I felt we could if we changed things.”
This was far from Candrea’s most talented team among his champions, but it helped that it could ride Hollowell’s coattails all the way to the finish line.
“I knew what I came here to do, and I knew I could get it done. That was pretty much it,” said Hollowell, who pitched every inning at the WCWS and was selected the most outstanding player. “I came in here and worked my butt off.”
She certainly did last night, because unlike Monday, when she fired a one-hitter in an 8-0 victory over Northwestern, Hollowell needed to constantly dance out of trouble in front of 4,423 at ASA Don E. Porter Hall of Fame Stadium.
She was staked to a 1-0 lead in the first when Canyon del Oro High School graduate Callista Balko punched a grounder to second to drive in Caitlin Lowe from third.
Northwestern’s players, shortening their swings from a night earlier and making more contact, loaded the bases in the third with no outs. But Hollowell wriggled away, striking out two-time Big Ten player of the year Garland Cooper looking, getting a pop-up and then a high fly out to left.
“Total heart palpitations,” her dad, Doug Hollowell, would say later.
With the score still 1-0, Northwestern threatened with two on and two out in the top of the fifth. Hollowell struck out Jamie Dotson looking on a 3-2 pitch.
“Arizona got all the big outs tonight,” said Northwestern coach Kate Drohan. “And it started with Hollowell.”
An RBI single by Autumn Champion and a run-scoring double from Balko made it 3-0 in the bottom of the fifth. A Northwestern error and an RBI single by Champion gave UA a 5-0 advantage in the sixth.
But there would be one final drama.
Down to its final out, Northwestern loaded the bases with three consecutive singles. It was all just set up for one more shining moment – Hollowell striking out Dotson looking – again – on a 3-2 pitch, her NCAA-record 64th punch-out of the World Series.
Then the party began.
“My face hurts from smiling so much,” Hollowell said nearly an hour later.
Hollowell (32-5) allowed nine hits last night, striking out 13 and walking one (intentionally). Northwestern’s Eileen Canney (26-9) yielded 12 hits, striking out four.
Hollowell went 5-1 at the Series, allowing 24 hits and three runs, two earned, in 43 innings.
That’s an ERA of 0.33.
“I knew she was in a zone,” said UA pitching coach Nancy Evans. “And I didn’t mess with it.”
But Candrea had to mess with his team plenty, wrestling with the collective personality to get the Cats to where they had a chance to join the UA championship teams of 1991, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997 and 2001.
Frustration boiling over six weeks ago, he lashed out at his team, demanding more energy, more commitment, more fun, more positive reactions.
Team T-shirts had the message on the back: Preparation, Action, Response.
The late-season attitude transformation is what makes title No. 7 unique.
Arizona won 20 of its last 22 games, finishing at 54-11.
With the players celebrating the final out, jumping and fist-pumping and screaming around Hollowell near the pitching circle, Candrea slowly emerged from the dugout.
It has always been his style to let the players have their moment.
“This is probably one of my better feelings as a national champion,” Candrea said. “My ‘thank you’ is watching what they did.”
The Wildcats' Caitlin Lowe connects for a hit in the first inning of UA's 5-0 win Tuesday against Northwestern that clinched the 2006 NCAA softball title.
Arizona players celebrate after beating Northwestern 5-0 Tuesday to win the NCAA softball championship.
Arizona at the Women’s College World Series
The Arizona softball team is making its 18th appearance at the College World Series in the past 19 years.
Producer: Anthony Gimino
 |  |  |
———
RELATED STORIES
Corky: Talking-to ignited champions
