Ask Danielle O’Toole about anything, from her teammates’ accomplishments to the merits of In-N-Out Burger, and the UA star pitcher lights up.
When O’Toole talks about herself, however, she’s a little bit more understated.
The Arizona Wildcats’ ace nearly held South Carolina hitless on Saturday, carrying a no-hit bid into the seventh inning before the Gamecocks managed a double, their lone hit of the afternoon. To that point, O’Toole had retired 14 straight batters.
O’Toole was the star in the Wildcats’ 5-0 win over South Carolina on Saturday. The No. 2 seed UA moved to within one win of advancing to the Super Regionals. The left-hander struck out seven batters without walking any of them.
So, Danielle, what was working against the Gamecocks?
“Change-up,” she said.
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Simply put, and true — South Carolina had trouble hitting O’Toole’s signature off-speed pitch, as teams have all season. With the victory, O’Toole (29-4) is just one win away from becoming the 11th member of Arizona’s 30-win club.
“‘Tooly’ threw a hell of a ball game,” said UA coach Mike Candrea.
The great thing about her performance, Candrea said, was “her ability to go through the lineup and not really utilize her off-speed pitch and then, all of a sudden, the second time around, that became a weapon.”
From the end of the third inning until the beginning of the sixth, O’Toole struck out six of the seven South Carolina batters she faced.
Entering the seventh, O’Toole said she wasn’t really thinking about the possible no-hitter.
“You just go do your job and it doesn’t matter if anything happens to affect that,” O’Toole said. “You just go do your job.”
UA outfielder Mandie Perez, who was 2 for 4 with an RBI, described O’Toole’s dominance as a sort of calming influence for Arizona’s hitters.
“It just makes us a little bit more calm at the plate especially because we know she’s doing her job,” Perez said. “If we’re not coming through right away like we did today, we know she’s going to hold us down in the circle. We have her back too.”
Arizona’s bats were productive as usual on Saturday, though the run production wasn’t quite at the level it could’ve been. Arizona finished with 11 hits and left 12 runners on base, though the five runs were more than enough.
“I really thought offensively we didn’t do a lot of great things, but, man, we left 12 runners on base so we had a lot of opportunities,” Candrea said. “We were one key hit away from really blowing it open.”
The Wildcats lead the nation in home runs, and senior Katiyana Mauga hit the 91st home run of her career against the Gamecocks in the second inning, a solo shot that set a new Pac-12 career record. But for most of Saturday, the Wildcats used small ball.
Freshmen Dejah Mulipola and Reyna Carranco both singled with two outs in the fifth inning. Ashleigh Hughes then walked and pinch-hitter Hillary Edior reached on a fielding error, narrowly beating out a throw to first on a slide. Mulipola scored from third.
“I surely won’t argue that” slide, Candrea said. “It’s probably slower to slide (into first) than run through the bag. It’s been proven. But sometimes it looks good.”
Perez singled home a run, and Mauga plated two more on a base hit to give Arizona a 5-0 lead. In the end, four Wildcats — Mauga, Perez, Mulipola and Carranco — finished with two hits.
“One of the great traits of good teams is as long as you have an out, you have a chance,” Candrea said. “We had some really good at-bats with two outs, especially Hillary pinch hitting, sliding into first to get on base, that opened things up.
“The thing I like right now is we’re scoring a ton of runs with not just the home run.”
Inside pitch
• South Carolina narrowly held off Saint Francis (Pennsylvania) in an elimination game on Saturday night, beating the Red Flash 3-1. Saint Francis had plenty of opportunity to pull off the upset, leaving 15 runners on base and only scoring one run on eight hits. J Elliott (16-9) won the game for South Carolina despite allowing seven hits and walking six batters in 5 2/3 innings. USC freshman Mackenzie Boesel hit a 2-run home run in the fifth inning.
• In order to advance to the Super Regional round, the Gamecocks will have to beat Arizona two times on Sunday. The Wildcats haven’t lost two consecutive games at Hillenbrand Stadium since losing twice to James Madison in last year’s Wildcat Invitational in March. Arizona will onlyneed to win one game to advance to the Super Regional round, which would also take place at Hillenbrand.
“This is where we wanted to be, the championship game,” South Carolina coach Beverly Smith said.
Added pitcher Nickie Blue: “Every game we go out it’s a battle, no matter who it is, you have to keep that mentality. Against Arizona (Saturday) afternoon, it was a brawl. It was just who’s going to blink first? They just happened to get the timely hits that we didn’t.”
