Arizona softball 1 win away from NCAA Super Regional after 2-1 victory over No. 12 Arkansas

Well, there was at least one similarity: The Wildcats won again — this time 2-1 over No. 12 national seed and regional host Arkansas. Arizona is now one Sunday afternoon victory away from yet another in a line of many Super Regional appearances over the long history of one of the sport’s most storied programs.

While the other three teams in the Fayetteville regional kept playing Saturday at Bogle Park on the campus of the University of Arkansas, coach Caitlin Lowe’s Wildcats got a little respite after their narrow victory.

In the later games, Villanova, who Arizona defeated 14-3 Friday night, won twice Saturday, handing both Southeast Missouri State and Arkansas their second losses by way of 4-1 and 7-2 wins, respectively. By upsetting the Razorbacks, it will be a Cats-vs.-Cats showdown Sunday at 1 p.m. The scenarios surrounding that game:

• A UA win in that 1 p.m. showdown and Arizona is the regional champion.

• Arizona loses that first game, and the Tucson-based Wildcats will play Wildcats from near Philadelphia again in a winner-take-all matchup at roughly 3:30 p.m.

ESPN’s family of networks carries the distribution rights to all NCAA Division I Softball Tournament games; if either game is not available via the network’s broadcast channels (such as ESPN or ESPN2), the game would be streamed via ESPN+.

On Friday, Arizona blasted Villanova behind a monster performance from the top of the UA lineup; the win also came despite struggles in the circle from relief pitcher Brooke Mannon.

On Saturday, Mannon put on the hero’s cape, tossing 3⅔ innings of one-hit, one-run ball to pick up the seventh, and arguably biggest, win of her freshman campaign. That effort came less than a full day after she walked three and gave up three earned runs without recording a single out, even as Arizona cruised to victory in the opener.

“(I) wanted to get her right back in the game, for sure,” Arizona coach Caitlin Lowe said after Saturday’s win. “I thought the coolest thing was her response from yesterday. I mean, that’s huge against a very good hitting team. She came out with a lot of confidence and had her stuff working.”

UA sophomore hurler Aissa Silva was also sharp Saturday, allowing two hits and striking out four in 3⅓ innings as the starter before returning to close it out in the seventh.

Arkansas trailed Southeast Missouri State 2-0 Friday in the fifth inning, only to rally for the 3-2 win. On Saturday, the Razorbacks cut a 2-0 Arizona lead to one with a Rylin Hedgecock solo home run to left in the bottom of the seventh. While that was Mannon’s lone hit allowed, Lowe elected to put Silva back in with no outs to shut the door. Silva sent the Razorbacks down 1-2-3 on a flyout to right, a strikeout and a pop-out to short left.

“I love that Brooke was in a pressure moment,” Lowe said. “I love that Aissa was in a pressure moment and they found their way on top.”

Arizona’s pitching dominance was clearly welcomed on a day when the Wildcat bats scattered just three hits, though the UA led throughout after scoring both runs in the top of the first. Sophomore designated player Olivia DiNardo scored freshman outfielder Regan Shockey on a sacrifice fly to left before senior third baseman Blaise Biringer’s RBI single pushed home senior first baseman Carlie Scupin.

Biringer was the lone Wildcat with more than one hit, adding a fourth-inning triple to finish 2 for 3.

The top five batters in Arizona’s lineup Saturday — sophomore left fielder Dakota Kennedy, Shockey, Scupin, senior second baseman Allie Skaggs and DiNardo — were 0 for 11 against Arkansas a day after that same quintet was 8 for 11 with six RBIs against Villanova.

“I think we’re such a great hitting team,” Biringer said of Saturday being the exception, not the norm, for the high-powered UA offense. “We’re just so strong and so dangerous that if we trust our abilities … we’re unstoppable.”

Lowe said it’s her point of view that the way Arizona fought to Saturday’s 2-1 decision has a greater positive impact on her team’s confidence than results like Friday’s 14-3 blowout.

“I think the tight games breed more confidence because it’s a mental grind as well as a physical grind,” Lowe said. “That’s what I was proud of for the team today. They were locked in for every single moment, responding after a very big home run in the seventh inning. And I think that’s huge. They weren’t deflated.”

Arkansas pitcher Robyn Herron went the distance in defeat, giving up those two runs and three hits while striking out four, but also walking three, in seven innings of work.

Arizona and Arkansas have now met as many times over the last two seasons as the Wildcats have seen some of their Pac-12 counterparts. With two of those games in Tucson and four in Fayetteville, the tale of the tape: three wins apiece, with the Wildcats outscoring the Razorbacks 15-13 overall. Five of the six matchups have been decided by just one run.

“Just a really, really good softball game,” Lowe said of Saturday’s duel. “Two great teams, great pitching going at it. Phenomenal defense and hitters trying to make adjustments all day. And we were lucky to executive when we did. The ladies did a good job of that.

“Just proud of their grit and finding a way to win today.”

Later Saturday, Villanova and SEMO, both losers Friday night, faced off in an elimination game for the right to face Arkansas even later the same day. The winner of that last game is who Arizona will face Sunday.

The Wildcats also enter Sunday with the possibility still on the table — even if not likely — they could host a Super Regional at Hillenbrand Stadium next weekend. For that to happen: Arizona, of course, would first need to defeat Villanova once Sunday to win the Fayetteville Regional.

Then, with the Fayetteville Regional matched up in the bracket alongside the Oklahoma State-hosted regional in Stillwater, Oklahoma, Arizona would need OSU to lose twice Sunday at its own home stadium for Tucson to have a chance to host the supers.

Like Arizona, OSU, the No. 5 national seed, won their first two games in the Stillwater Regional.

The Cowgirls defeated Northern Colorado 6-0 Friday and Kentucky 6-2 Saturday; they have two chances of their own to move on Sunday. If they do, the corresponding Super Regional, featuring OSU and the Fayetteville winner, will be in Stillwater — exactly 60 miles from Oklahoma City’s Devon Park (formerly known as the USA Softball Hall of Fame Complex), site of the Women’s College World Series.