Shelby Pendley rounds the bases after hitting her 19th home run of last season, in NCAA regional play vs. Notre Dame. Photo by Andy Morales, TucsonCitizen.com

Arizona shortstop Shelby Pendley, who earned first-team All-Pac-12 honors last season as a freshman, has left the team, coach Mike Candrea said Thursday.

“It was kind of a surprise,” Candrea said. “For personal reasons, she decided to leave the team. It is what it is.”

Candrea added that he did not know where Pendley will continue her career.

She hit .331 with 19 home runs last season — two off the school freshman record — and had 55 RBIs while starting all 57 games at shortstop. She did all that while coming back from a torn ACL in the summer and battling a lower back injury late in the season.

At one point late last season, Candrea said the left-handed hitting Pendley, from Rio Rancho, N.M., could be about as good as he’s ever had at shortstop.

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Kenzie Fowler finished last season with a 15-9 record. Photo by Mark Evans, TucsonCitizen.com

Arizona Wildcats senior pitcher Kenzie Fowler will undergo back surgery on Oct. 4 but is expected to be recover in time for the 2013 season, UA announced Friday.

Fowler, who has had a myriad of health problems through her career, has been bothered by back pain, as well as leg and foot numbness for the past nine months, which includes the 2012 season. She will undergo a microscopic lumbar discectomy for a herniated disc.

Fowler was a first-team All-American as a freshman in 2010, helping the Wildcats advance to the championship round of the Women’s College World Series. She was a second-team All-American in 2011 but struggled last season while dealing with the back problems.

Fowler was 15-9 last season with a 2.85 ERA. She is 79-27 in her career, with a 1.95 ERA and 794 strikeouts in 652 2/3 innings.

The Wildcats have more options in the circle this season, starting with junior Shelby Babcock, who was 21-10 with a 3.02 ERA in 2012. Arizona also welcomes highly touted freshman Nancy Bowling and Estela Pinon, from Yavapai Junior College and Sunnyside High School.

Arizona will begin its fall schedule Oct. 7 with a home doubleheader against Yavapai and Eastern Arizona College, beginning at 3 p.m. at Hillenbrand Stadium.

Kenzie Fowler struck out six and walked none vs. Notre Dame on Saturday. ESPN3.com screenshot

Arizona Wildcats pitcher Kenzie Fowler started 22 games in the regular season but never did what she accomplished in her first postseason start of the year.

She, encouragingly, did not walk a batter.

Fowler, whose junior season has been marked with the most enduring struggles of her career, helped lead Arizona to a 7-2 victory over Notre Dame in the winners’ bracket of an NCAA regional at Hillenbrand Stadium on Saturday.

The UA advances to the championship game Sunday at 2:30 p.m. against Notre Dame, which beat North Dakota State on Saturday night to advance in the double-elimination regional. The Wildcats will have two chances, if necessary, to win and advance to next week’s Super Regional.

Fowler worked in and out of trouble Saturday, as the Irish had at least one runner in scoring position in four of the six innings she pitched. But she often got the big outs, and didn’t make things worse by giving away free passes to first base.

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Kenzie Fowler finished last season with a 26-9 record. Photo by Mark Evans, TucsonCitizen.com

Arizona Wildcats pitcher Kenzie Fowler is in the running for a spot on the United States national team that will compete in the Women’s World Championship this summer.

Former Arizona third baseman Jenae Leles is one of 12 players who already have been chosen to the team, which will include infielder Molly Johnson, a Sabino High graduate. Both were on the national team last year.

There are still five spots at stake, with 11 players having accepted invitations to try out. They include Fowler and Arizona State sophomore pitcher Dallas Escobedo.

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Kenzie Fowler finished the season with a 28-9 record. Photo by Mark Evans, TucsonCitizen.com

Some help is on the way for the Arizona softball pitching staff.

The Wildcats tried to navigate the 2011 season with only two pitchers, which made things dicey late in the season when sophomore ace Kenzie Fowler was out for six games late in the season because of a concussion.

Head coach Mike Candrea — as he was last offseason to no avail — is on the lookout for help from anywhere, including transfers from four-year schools and junior colleges.

Already, he is bringing in left-hander Kiley Shae Aldridge from Cabrillo High School in Lompoc, Calif. She should provide a softer-throwing contrast to right-handers Fowler and Shelby Babcock.

Candrea, the former head coach of the U.S. national team, could also use his international contacts.

“I may take a trip to Australia to see what’s coming up in the ranks,” he said Saturday after Oklahoma eliminated the Wildcats from an NCAA Super Regional

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The past 21 Arizona teams coached by Mike Candrea have advanced to the College World Series. Photo by Mark Evans, TucsonCitizen.com

The Arizona Wildcats softball team booted a ball in the field, had an outfielder slip and allow a two-run single, failed to deliver any key hit … and didn’t pitch all that well, either.

But, hey, there’s always today, right?

That might be all Arizona has after a 6-0 loss to Oklahoma on Friday night in the first game of a best-of-three Super Regional at Hillenbrand Stadium. (Read the game blog here.)

The Wildcats have to sweep two games today to advance to the College World Series. It will be all on the line — including coach Mike Candrea’s personal streak of 21 consecutive years of taking Arizona to the Series — beginning at 2 p.m.

“It’s not going to take a good effort,” he said, “but a special effort.”

For sure, Arizona is going to need sophomore ace Kenzie Fowler to be special, to deliver two outstanding performances in 100 degree heat.

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Arizona's power hitters did plenty of celebrating around home plate this weekend, as Stacie Chambers did Saturday. Photo by Mark Evans, TucsonCitizen.com

The Arizona Wildcats softball team did what it should have done. It took care of business in the NCAA regional this weekend, capped by a 10-2 victory over Texas Tech on Sunday.

Whether it was the Red Raiders, or New Mexico State on Saturday, or Harvard on Friday, none of the opponents had the pitching to challenge Arizona.

The Wildcats won by a combined score of 28-2. That’s the way it often is in this round of the playoffs.

But those days are over.

Arizona will take on Oklahoma this weekend in a best-of-three Super Regional at Hillenbrand Stadium. Friday’s game begins at 8:30 p.m. (ESPNU). The teams will play Saturday at 2 p.m. and, if necessary, at 4:30 p.m. (ESPN)

The Sooners beat UA 11-1 in a season-opening tournament in Tempe on February. They won again, 5-3, in the Judi Garman Classic in Fullerton, Calif., on March 17.

Oklahoma has one of the nation’s best pitchers — hard-throwing left-hander Keilani Ricketts, who ended the regular season fourth in the nation in strikeouts per seven innings (11.5).

“From here on out,” said coach Mike Candrea, “the margin of error becomes so slim.”

With the stakes, the pressure and the competition rising, here is a look at what’s going good and what’s going bad for the Wildcats:

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Kenzie Fowler struck out 15 hitters, three off her career-best. Photo by Mark Evans, TucsonCitizen.com

It wasn’t Kenzie Fowler’s best game. It sure wasn’t her worst. It was certainly one of her strangest.

Any which way, there is no argument with the results.

Fowler shut out an aggressive, power-hitting New Mexico State lineup, striking out a season-high 15 batters as the Arizona Wildcats won 8-0 at an NCAA regional game on Saturday afternoon at Hillenbrand Stadium.

Those numbers make it appear it was a vintage, dominating performance for Fowler, who earned All-American honors last season as a freshman. But she also allowed eight hits, walked three batters, hit two others and let the Aggies put a runner in scoring position in six of seven innings.

“The zero on the board doesn’t really show how many times they had scoring opportunities,” Fowler said, “but we did make some good plays at the right time.

“You really have to try to buckle down. I thought I did a good job of not getting tight in that situation. A lot of times I tend to overthrow when the pressure is on.

“But for some reason today, I was just feeling very loose when they had runners on. So, I think that is a good sign for me to have those kind of situations for down the road … or tomorrow.”

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Kenzie Fowler hugs coach Mike Candrea after the Wildcats beat Tennessee at the College World Series last season. ESPN3.com screenshot

Through the wins and losses, the ups and downs, the main goal of the Arizona softball season has been to make sure sophomore pitcher Kenzie Fowler was in good shape for the postseason … and then turn her loose.

How has that worked out?

We’ll find out Friday when the Wildcats take on Harvard at 6:30 p.m. at Hillenbrand Stadium in the first round of a double-elimination NCAA regional.

“Right now, I think she’s in a good frame of mind, and, for me, that’s the most important thing,” coach Mike Candrea said.

“The only thing I can really control is to make sure we’re in a good mindset.”

The frame of mind is one thing. Fowler’s physical health is another.

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The Sun Devils greet outfielder Annie Lockwood after she hit a three-run homer in the fifth inning to give ASU a 6-1 lead.
Photo by Mark Evans, TucsonCitizen.com.

As the Arizona State softball team huddled on the field for its postgame talk, a small group of Sun Devils fans began chanting from beyond the bullpen.

“Sweep! Sweep! Sweep!”

That’s what it was Saturday as Arizona State completed the three-game sweep over Arizona with an 8-3 victory at Hillenbrand Stadium against the strangest set of pitchers Wildcats coach Mike Candrea has ever used in 26 years at the school.

Second-ranked ASU took advantage of pitching-thin Arizona, getting three-run homers from Krista Donnenwirth and Annie Lockwood. Arizona State won the previous two games with the help of grand slams in the seventh inning.

“I tell you what, it was a great series,” said ASU coach Clint Myers. “You had two very good programs playing. … They have a great tradition and we have not been very successful here in the past.”

Which is a just a teeny, tiny understatement.

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