Olivia DiNardo has definitely made her presence known within the Arizona softball program — and across the Pac-12, if not the country — in a short amount of time.
She’s one of Arizona’s fab freshmen — that’s alongside pitchers Aissa Silva and Sydney Somerndike, outfielders Dakota Kennedy and Kaiah Altmeyer and infielders Tayler Biehl and Logan Cole — who are already making their mark on the UA program this season.
Whether DiNardo is leading off, as she was against Stanford last Saturday, or in the four, fifth or sixth spot in the lineup, opposing pitchers must game plan for her. That hasn’t proven easy.
In the beginning of March, she picked up Pac-12 honors for both freshman and player of the week, and deservedly so. She had a .857 batting average with 12 hits, five doubles and five walks. She also put up a 1.214 slugging percentage and 2.109 OPS in six games.
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Now, she leads all Pac-12 hitters with a .454 batting average, which is No. 14 nationally and best among all Division I freshmen. She leads the Pac-12 in hits (49) and all is best among conference freshmen in on-base percentage (.524), slugging percentage (.694) and walks (15).
Pretty heady numbers for anyone, let alone a rookie. But DiNardo doesn’t approach her at-bats or her time spent behind the plate like a first-year player.
“I can’t say enough about her,” Arizona coach Caitlin Lowe said. “She has a crazy work ethic all around defensively and offensively and just the maturity. She’s a little bit of a coach in the making if that makes sense. She thinks the game in a very different way, especially for an 18-year-old. And her insight is so, so valuable.
“She’s not just a hitter with tools. When she walks up there, she’s trying to outsmart a pitcher and I think usually you take three or four years to get to that point of feeling like that. She has a very steady heartbeat and consistency with the way she approaches the game. You know in a game that has a lot of ups and downs and ebbs and flows of offense — and for offense being mostly failure — she is able to stick with it consistently on a mental basis.”
As the Wildcats are put to one of their biggest tests of the season this weekend, they will rely on DiNardo to bring that steadiness.
Arizona (22-15, 3-9 Pac-12) hosts No. 2 UCLA (36-4, 12-3) starting Friday at 6 p.m. at Hillenbrand Stadium. The three-game series, which continues Saturday at 1 p.m. and Sunday at noon, will be televised on Pac-12 Networks.
When DiNardo arrived on the UA campus last fall from Aragon High School in San Matero, California, rated as the nation’s No. 2 catcher and No. 7 recruit overall, she decided to take a different approach to hitting. She said in club ball she would just “swing, hit the ball, do my thing.”
“I have a better routine, better preparation,” DiNardo said. “I come into the game. I know what I want to do with each pitcher I’ve watched film I’m very well prepared. I feel like it’s a new thing, I would say yes.
“I think coming in I sort of knew what I want to do. I knew talking to (Allie) Skaggs and she likes to watch film. We talked about how we get pitched (to) similar. We like hitting in front of each other, behind each other to feed off each other. But I think it was a lot of Dakota Kennedy and I work well together, too, and we can feed off each other. I played her in travel ball. I know her approach. Just working with people sitting and watching film with (UA coach) Cait (Lowe), talking to her each at-bat like, ‘This is what I’m seeing.’ ... I wouldn’t say as much mechanics, more of approach and finding a good pitch.”
Arizona freshman Olivia DiNardo, pictured scrambling for a ball hit toward her at first base during practice in January, earned Pac-12 and national recognition after a prolific performance at the plate in the early-season Hillenbrand Invitational. DiNardo has yet to cool down. Entering Friday’s matchup with No. 2 UCLA, she leads the Pac-12 with a .454 batting average and is tied for second in the conference with 49 hits to date.
A strategic approach
These days when DiNardo and her coach watch film together, Lowe said it brings her back to one part of the game she loves.
“I love (these sessions) because he has such great insight,” Lowe said. “It’s funny, she’ll say something totally off the cuff. I’m like, ‘No, no, no, no, no — like, relax, keep it simple,’ because her approach is great, and very few people are going to make her change her approach at the plate.
“It’s all about what tools do pitchers have? Are they going to try to beat her when ahead? What can she look for when she’s ahead? And then we just talk throughout the game,” Lowe added. “I think that’s probably my favorite part of the game is being able to play that cat-and-mouse with all of our hitters.”
For the last few weeks, senior catcher Izzy Pacho has been away from the Wildcats for personal reasons. She has returned this week and is expected to play against the Bruins. During this time, DiNardo slid in seamlessly back behind the plate. She has started a number of games throughout the season, but this was the first time knowing exactly where she’d be slotted into the lineup each game.
For DiNardo it was truly next woman up and she was “ready to step in when it was my turn to go.”
So much so that she has made only one error this season (it came last week against Stanford).
With countless hours catching all the UA pitchers in bullpen and during games, she is comfortable in knowing how to help them find the strike zone, whether they are starting or coming in relief.
“It’s based on the person,” she said, adding that it’s about knowing, “who to pick up, who to help and then vice versa if somebody needs to be talked to a little bit more than we’ll talk, we’ll figure it out.
“Definitely I try to keep things a little bit loose in the situations that we can and when we need to lock in, we’ll lock it and we’ll do our job,” she added. “Getting to know them as people and players and individually. When they come to the dugout how do they feel after an inning? Stuff like that. What can I do to make you feel better whether I’m catching, whether I’m not catching, just being a teammate overall.”
Extra bases
Power-hitting Carlie Scupin, who was hit on the forearm by a pitch during the New Mexico State game on March 15 and had surgery the following week, has been taking ground balls and inching closer to getting back into the lineup. “She’s been a rockstar,” Lowe said. “She’s done it with a brace on she’s done it with the brace off. She can use her glove hand freely. I think surgery week she took that week off and has been conditioning, has been working on her glove work. Can grip a bat right now. Can’t take a full swing off of pitches obviously but dabbled in a little bit of just like throwing yesterday so she’s working herself back in.”
Sophia Carroll is also available to play at shortstop during the UCLA series. Lowe didn’t disclose why Carroll didn’t play against Stanford except to say that whatever it was, it “snuck up on us a little bit fast.”
Arizona Softball coach Caitlin Lowe discusses how competitive her team is, in addition to providing insight into the play of her team's freshman — for hitters, that includes their composure at the plate; for pitchers, the desire to have the ball in their hands. Lowe spoke to local media Mar. 14, 2023 at Mike Candrea Field at Rita Hillenbrand Memorial Stadium. Video by Devin Homer/Special to the Arizona Daily Star
Arizona pitcher Devyn Netz set a new career high Friday, March 31, with 11 strikeouts in Arizona's 6-0 win over San Diego in the Bear Down Fiesta at Hillenbrand Stadium in Tucson. Netz's complete game shutout included three hits and two walks. Video courtesy Arizona Athletics (via Twitter)
