Former Arizona Wildcats softball player Matte Haack, who decided to transfer after last season, has chosen to play at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

Our Gannett partner, the Lafayette Advertiser, reported the news last week.

Haack, who has two seasons of eligibility with the Ragin’ Cajuns, was a backup infielder last season, hitting .130 in 23 at-bats.

Playing time figured to be equally scarce for Haack next season.

“I wanted what would make her happy,” Arizona coach Mike Candrea told the Advertiser. “She’s a good kid and a hard worker. There were no issues with her attitude, her effort or anything like that. It was just a matter of her not getting enough playing time.

“We discussed it and I didn’t know how much playing time she would get. We decided that if she’s going to do it, this was the time to do it. Sometimes things just don’t work out. It happens. Rather than sitting somewhere for four years and not being happy, sometimes it’s better to transfer.”

Haack’s freshman year highlights in 2010 included a game-tying ninth-inning home run against Hofstra in NCAA regional play.

Jessica Spigner

When the Arizona Wildcats softball team was eliminated from an NCAA Super Regional, coach Mike Candrea promised change.

In less than a month, he has added a power-hitting transfer and lost a backup infielder.

The transfer is Jessica Spigner, a corner infielder from Tennessee who projects into the middle of Arizona’s lineup for the 2012 season. Spigner will have one season of eligibility at UA after hitting 38 home runs with the Vols.

“I know Arizona was a place she was interested in; she had come to some of our camps,” Candrea said Thursday afternoon.

“It just so happened that things did not work out (at Tennessee) and she was looking for a place. She has done a pretty good job of swinging the bat for Tennessee, so she brings great experience at this level.

“We could have a kid who could hit 15, 20 home runs and drive in a lot of runs.”

(more…)

All seems right with Arizona softball again. The Wildcats have advanced to an NCAA Super Regional, which will played at home Friday and Saturday against BYU.

Arizona was pushed to 12 innings by Hofstra on Sunday, but the Cats rallied twice in extra innings. Matte Haack‘s pinch-hit home run tied the game at 4 in the bottom of the ninth, but Hofstra forged ahead with two runs in the top of the 12th.

Karissa Buchanan and Lauren Schutzler singled to put the tying runs on base, and then K’Lee Arredondo delivered a one-out, two-run triple into the right-center field gap. Hofstra intentionally walked the next two batters to set up a force at any base, but that didn’t matter when Lini Koria smashed a grand slam to win the game 10-6.

Arizona went 3-0 in the Tucson Regional. If Hofstra would have won, the teams would have played again in a winner-take-all game. That could have been dicey for the Cats, considering ace Kenzie Fowler had pitched 11 1/3 innings before Sarah Akamine finished up with two outs to get the win.

“That was probably the best performance I have seen as far as grit, fight and the never-give-up from the people out there,” UA coach Mike Candrea said in his post-game news conference.

“For K’Lee to come up as a senior and embrace the moment and come through in the clutch was huge. And with Lini, I told her, ‘Let’s do one for (Lini’s late mother)’ and boom. It was remarkable.

“It was one of the greatest wins. For the time, for what the game meant and for the situation we were in, it was one of the biggest games since I’ve been here.”

Arizona will play BYU in the best-of-three Super Regional, with the winner advancing to the Women’s College World Series. The Wildcats will be looking to advance to their 22nd World Series in the past 23 seasons.

To get there, they will have to conquer a good-hitting Cougars team that features a couple of premier senior sluggers.

Third baseman Angeline Quiocho, the Mountain West Conference Player of the Year, has 27 home runs and entered last week as the nation’s leader in homers (0.5 per game). First baseman Andrea Ramirez has 19 home runs and was 10th in the country at 0.35 per game.

The bracket has worked in Arizona’s favor so far. BYU upset seventh-seeded host Texas in regional play. If Texas had won, the Wildcats — seeded 10th in the tournament — would have had to travel to Austin for the Super Regional.

Now, there is more softball at Hillenbrand … always a good thing for the Cats.

The right arm of Kenzie Fowler could very well be the story of Arizona's season/2008 Tucson Citizen photo by Cisco Medina

The Arizona softball team begins practice Monday afternoon, with coach Mike Candrea back for his 23rd season and pitcher Kenzie Fowler ready to begin her first.

Sounds like a pretty good combination.

Fowler is the hard-throwing 6-foot pitching machine, a local kid from CDO, a two-time national Gatorade Player of the Year for softball, a bright, smart student who grew up going to games at Hillenbrand Stadium, all of 18 years old and already with the inspirational story of overcoming life-threatening blood clots in her pitching shoulder in 2007.

All she is expected to do is descend upon Hillenbrand and deliver a couple of national championships. At least. Right?

All Candrea is expected to do is keep expectations somewhere in the ballpark.

In any case, it’s an exciting new pitching chapter for Arizona, which was last seen giving up an unholy 14 runs to Alabama while getting swept out of the Women’s College World Series. The Wildcats could have used Fowler last season. Maybe the season before.

No doubt, she is the headline story as practice begins, but here are three other subheds to whet the appetite.

Brigette Del Ponte is here
The freshman infielder from Sunrise Mountain High in Peoria didn’t enroll in the fall because of some academic issues, but she made it here for the spring semester and will try to find a role as a utility player. Del Ponte was rated the fourth-best recruit in the nation by ESPNU.

Arizona has only two positional vacancies from last season — third base and first base. Freshman Matte Haack appears to have dibs on third, with powerful freshman Baillie Kirker having designs on first.

Brittany Lastrapes is back
The junior outfielder hit a team-best .481 last season and slugged 17 home runs in 63 games. The lefty-hitting Lastrapes just finished competing at a tryout camp for Team USA, which will compete in this summer’s World Championships. The squad is expected to be announced Monday.

Two former Cats — pitcher Jennie Finch and outfielder Caitlin Lowe, both Olympic veterans — are locks for the team. Another ex-Cat, third baseman Jenae Leles, is up for a spot on the team after getting national team experience last summer.

Candrea hires a Red Sox fan
The Wildcats have a new volunteer assistant coach — a position that is always more valuable than it sounds — and Candrea, the ol’ Yankees fan, must really like the new guy, who is from Boston.

That would be Nick French, who spent the past two seasons as an assistant at Piedmont College in Georgia. French used to cover prep sports as an intern for the Boston Globe, so we’re guessing an unpaid position as a softball assistant is a step up from journalism.

We hear that the left-hander throws a mighty fine batting practice, which means he will more than earn his pay at Arizona.

Arizona softball coach Mike Candrea has a theme for his fall camp: Character counts.

“I really felt we have been lacking a really strong team chemistry in which the athletes enjoyed being around one another,” he said. “There was just way too much selfishness that has been plaguing us for a while.”

Mike Candrea wants to use last season's College World Series as motivation/2009 Tucson Citizen photo

He’ll be repeating that phrase and working on the mindset — and all the usual fundamental stuff that comes with fall camp — while not wanting to forget what happened last spring.

Arizona was last seen losing 14-0 to Alabama at the Women’s College World Series in May — the worst loss in the history of the program.

“We use it as a reminder,” Candrea said. “You can always use experiences as a motivator if you’re smart enough to learn from it. The kids who were here last year surely have that in the back of their minds.”

Arizona has four freshmen who will be seeing the field for the first time when the Cats begin their fall exhibition schedule Sunday against Yavapai College. Yavapai is coached Stacy Iveson, who was a catcher and assistant coach at Arizona, and the head coach at Pima Community College.

The star of UA’s freshman class is pitcher Kenzie Fowler, a two-time Gatorade softball national player of the year at Canyon del Oro High School. Candrea is hoping to keep the hype under control.

“You just don’t want expectations that are unrealistic,” he said.

“She needs to grow and get better. We have a great tradition to fall back on, talking about the great players we have had here and the trials and tribulations they had to go through.”

Fowler and Ashley Ralston-Alvarez, a walk-on from Pima, are expected to pitch this fall. UA’s other pitcher, senior Sarah Akamine, is recovering from back surgery and is expected to be good to go when the real season begins in February, Candrea said.

Other newcomers are infielder Baillie Kirker (the career high school home run leader in California), outfielder Becca Tikey and infielder Matte Haack. As first reported on wildaboutazcats.com, freshman recruit Brigette DelPonte, an infielder rated the fourth-best recruit in the nation by ESPNU, will try to enroll for the spring after running into admission problems.

FALL SCHEDULE

Sunday — vs. Yavapai, 2 p.m.
Oct. 9 — vs. Arizona Western, 4 p.m.
Oct. 10 — vs. New Mexico, 5:30 p.m.; vs. Central Arizona, 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 11 — vs. Cypress, 3 p.m.; vs. Pima, 5 p.m.
Oct. 28 — vs. Pima, 4 p.m.