There wasn’t any hesitation on the part of Pima Community College softball coach Armando Quiroz when Katie Ingraham phoned to inquire about playing for the Aztecs.
“She asked me if I still wanted her and I said, ‘Absolutely. We’ll take you,’ ” Quiroz said.
Quiroz tried to recruit Ingraham out of Catalina Foothills High School, but she chose an academic scholarship to Arizona State.
Ingraham failed to make the ASU softball team as a walk-on. When that happened, she decided to call Quiroz.
“Things just didn’t work out with softball,” Ingraham said. “I was lucky enough that coach (Quiroz) gave me the chance to come play here. I wasn’t ready to give it up yet.”
Ingraham, who plays third base, hasn’t disappointed Quiroz since enrolling at midterm.
She entered this week hitting .463, which ranked her 14th in the Arizona Community College Athletic Conference. With 63 hits entering this week, she could reach 100 before the end of the regular season.
She is also tied for second in the ACCAC with five triples. She’s one shy of tying for the conference lead.
“She has been a joy,” Quiroz said.
Ingraham continued to work out in softball while at ASU, so it wasn’t much of an adjustment to prepare for this season.
“I had to get use to the different coaching styles,” Ingraham said.
“I had to get close to the team, but they were very accepting of me. It made for an easy transition.”
Ingraham had to earn her starting job at Pima.
“Once you get to junior college all the players are very good,” she said. “It has been so much fun playing with all these girls out here because everyone is so wonderful and very good ballplayers.
“I was definitely lucky to get the opportunity.”
Ingraham and her teammates host No. 3-ranked Yavapai Saturday in a doubleheader that starts at 2 p.m.
No. 16 Pima trails second-place Yavapai by two games in the conference standings. Phoenix College leads Yavapai by two games.
More Pima sports
Other Pima squads besides the softball team are involved in key events Saturday:
Baseball: Pima travels to Yuma to face Arizona Western in a noon doubleheader. With six games left, the Aztecs are hoping to hold onto at least the fourth and final playoff spot.
Track and field: The Pima men’s and women’s teams will host their first conference meet in six years at the West Campus against Glendale and Mesa. Field events start at 10 a.m. and track events at 11:30 a.m., with 160 athletes vying in 38 events.
Women’s tennis:
Pima finished second at the Region I tournament Thursday in Glendale, placing behind only Eastern Arizona.
The team will compete in the national tournament in two weeks.
Citizen Staff Report
Plummer to be QB coach
SANDPOINT, Idaho – Former NFL quarterback Jake Plummer will be the quarterbacks coach at Sandpoint High School, in the scenic Idaho resort town where he lives.
Head coach Mike Mitchell said the 34-year-old Plummer will be paid as a normal assistant high school coach, and joked that it probably won’t be what Plummer earned in his playing days.
Plummer played for the Arizona Cardinals and Denver Broncos before retiring in 2006. He threw for more than 29,000 yards, 161 touchdowns and 161 interceptions in his decade-long pro career.
Plummer is a Boise native and retired to Sandpoint, an outdoor mecca in the Rocky Mountains along the shores of Lake Pend Oreille.
His brother, Eric, already lived in the town.
The Associated Press
Castroneves acquitted
MIAMI – Brazilian race car driver and “Dancing With The Stars” champ Helio Castroneves was acquitted Friday of most charges that he worked with his sister and lawyer to evade more than $2.3 million in U.S. income taxes.
A federal jury acquitted Castroneves on six counts of tax evasion but was hung on one count of conspiracy. When the sentence was read, Castroneves broke into sobs and leaned against his attorneys for support.
“I just want to thank God and my fans, and all of the people who prayed for me,” he said outside the courtroom in his native Portuguese, still fingering a rosary.
The jury also acquitted Katiucia Castroneves, 35, who is her 33-year-old brother’s business manager, on the tax evasion counts but also hung on the conspiracy charge. Michigan motorsports attorney Alan Miller, 71, was acquitted on all three counts of tax evasion and one count of conspiracy. The deliberations took six days after a six-week trial.
The Associated Press
NUMBER OF THE DAY
1,332
Career victories by Lenny Wilkens, the most of any NBA coach. Other leaders:
Don Nelson 1,309
Pat Riley 1,210
Jerry Sloan 1,137
Larry Brown 1,045
Phil Jackson 1,041
Bill Fitch 944
Red Auerbach 938
Dick Motta 935
George Karl 933
Jack Ramsay 864
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SPORTS SOUND-OFF
What about Geary?
Re: Sean Miller hires brother as assistant at UA
So, this is how we repay Reggie Geary? Is he out?
SPDWSWANGUY
We have the Stoop brothers and now Miller brothers. Wow. Reggie Geary, I hope the best for you.
ABDUL
Archie Miller is a great hire. I love Geary and would have been happy with him on board too but look at Ohio State’s 2010 class and tell me that wouldn’t be welcomed at Arizona. Stop with the nepotism crap. This is a good hire.
SMITTY
Keep the Arizona basketball tradition alive, make a Final Four or two, beat UCLA, sweep Arizona State and I’ll take nepotism till the cows come home.
BROCKS
Got a beef? E-mail: sports@tucsoncitizen.com (sports@tucsoncitizen.com). Call: 573-4635.
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ON THIS DATE
1962: Boston’s Bill Russell scores 30 points and grabs 40 rebounds to lead the Celtics to a 110-107 overtime win over the Los Angeles Lakers and their fourth consecutive NBA title.
1988: Ibrahim Hussein of Kenya battles past Juma Ikangaa of Tanzania in the final 100 yards to win the Boston Marathon by the slimmest margin ever, 1 second.
1999: Wayne Gretzky ends his NHL career as his host New York Rangers fall to Pittsburgh 2-1.
2007: Mark Buehrle of the Chicago White Sox faces the minimum 27 batters in a 6-0 no-hit win over the Texas Rangers.