Transfer portal softball players a winning hand for Arizona

Junior catcher/utility Sydney Stewart (from Washington), junior infielder Kiki Escobar (from Oregon State) and graduate student pitcher Saya Swain (from Iowa State) have stepped in to play prominent roles for the Wildcats.

“The transfer portal was tricky because you never know why someone is leaving and they are just high quality kids and we’re lucky to have them,” said UA head coach Caitlin Lowe. “I can’t say enough about all three honestly I think we’ve lucked out in a lot of ways with the kind of people they are.”

No. 11-ranked Arizona (23-4, 1-2) hosts Utah (8-19, 0-0) for a three-game series Friday through Sunday, seeking its first Big 12 series win.

Swain (3-1) has a 2.22 ERA over 28⅓ innings pitched, 28 strikeouts and a .194 opponent batting average.

Stewart is batting .389, with a 1.366 OPS, 32 RBIs, eight home runs, .806 slugging percentage. and a .560 on-base percentage. She had a combined seven homers in two seasons at Washington.

Escobar has a .364 average, .462 on-base percentage and .984 fielding percentage.

Escobar was second team All-Pac-12 at Oregon State, on the Pac-12 All-Freshman team and was Pac-12 Freshman of the Week three times, including after playing the Wildcats.

Stewart had 4 RBIs, two doubles and a home run in one of her games at Arizona last year.

Escobar played second base at Oregon State but has played many roles at Arizona, including first base.

Lowe said the transfers have been awesome.

“Kiki’s just been ready for anything we’ve thrown at her and she’s someone in practice that’s played every single infield position and she can hardly breathe because she’s taken reps everywhere,” Lowe said. “Her and (sophomore outfielder) Zaedi (Tagalog) are right behind me ready to pitch in on every single game and just ready for whatever their job is, that’s been very cool to see that type of buy in.”

Escobar, who is from Oxnard, Calif., missed 2023 due to injury.

UA lost three infielders last year.

“Graduating the class that we graduated it was just a big senior infield class for us, so a lot of question marks going into the season,” Lowe said. “Kiki is someone that we played against, and she did so well against us, so she was a name that stood out immediately, same with Syd, too.

“She had a incredible series when they played against us last year, so that was a no-brainer for us and honestly, meeting them both for the first time, it was really a no-brainer for us as far as their character goes, their passion for the game and just you know, the ability to be so all in to a program that you just step into.”

Stewart is first in the Big 12 in home runs, second in RBIs and walks, fourth in slugging, on-base percentage and OPS and fifth in runs.

“Syd Stew’s been just an incredible, incredible edition,” Lowe said. “Just characterizing the way she’s fit into our program and kind of taking on a little bit of a leadership role this year and that’s tough for transfers to come into a program, into a new culture and really just buy in, have the respect of everyone and kind of keep rolling.”

Swain is second in the league in hits allowed (20), fifth in runs allowed (12), seventh in opposing batting average and earned runs allowed (nine), eighth in walks (nine) and ninth in ERA.

“Saya, I can’t say enough about the way she’s come in and worked and her and (pitching coach) Christian’s (Conrad) relationship has been so great,” Lowe said.

Escobar said the transfer process was scary, but she’s glad she went through it and found a new home.

“It was definitely scary, the whole transfer process, but just because it’s a lot going back into recruiting, like our recruiting was kind of different with COVID and everything, so we had like virtual visits, initially,” Stewart said, “but getting to go actually travel to places and Arizona’s actually one of the first places that reached out to me and I grew up playing against like (junior outfielder) Dakota (Kennedy), so she reached out to me actually and I said ‘I’d love to go on a visit.’ It was my it was my very first visit and it just it was amazing and like everything that I ever wanted.”

Escobar’s familiarity with her former Pac-12 foe helped her pick Arizona.

“I just knew this was an environment I would want to play in and I played against them for the last three years so it was awesome to see them reach out,” Escobar said. “So, I knew this was definitely gonna be one of my top options in the transfer portal.”

Extra bases

— This weekend, the Wildcats enter the “Pac-12” portion of their schedule. They had only played their first Big 12 opponent, UCF, twice before last week, but they have 64 games against Utah and 167 vs. next week’s opponent, ASU. “That feels like we’re getting ready for a Pac-12 series again and at the same time it doesn’t, cause everyone feels new and everyone’s playing against new opponents and I just have so much respect for everyone in this conference and what they bring to the table — every single weekend’s gonna be hard,” Lowe said. “And that’s how it should be and we should rise to that challenge because it’s gonna prepare us for later, so I’m excited for it.”

— Friday is Candrea’s Canines Night, where the UA is giving away dog goodie bag bags. Then Saturday is Wii Sports Day with a Mii posters giveaway. Sunday is Youth Day, there will be a hair bow contest and it is a “Sunday Funday.”