Arizona softball's Regan Shockey shines again, but team success drives freshman outfielder

But she wants her contributions in the archives to be seen under “team” accomplishments.

With just 10 games left in the 2024 regular season, three of which are against ranked teams, the “team-centric” outfielder said she is solely focused on what she can do to assist the Wildcats in their remaining games to victory and to attack that goal as a team.

“I have no interest (in individual awards),” Shockey said Thursday.

“I do whatever I can for my team, and for my team honestly, to win all the upcoming games and whatever challenges are coming up, that we all get past them together and whatever that may include: winning, losing, failures, success; that we all just do it together.”

UA coach Caitlin Lowe didn’t skip a beat when asked about Shockey’s team-first mentality, expecting that trait from her young rising star. Despite being just a freshman, Lowe has seen Shockey become a leader on the team through doing what is expected of her which “kind of bleeds over to the rest of the team too.”

“I’ve seen her grow tremendously and I think that she sets the tone for us defensively,” Lowe said. “I think she also has the ability to bring people in and that’s what leadership is.”

Arizona (26-12-1), which won its past four games, had a lot of its success come from the play of Shockey, who recorded nine hits and six RBI’s, including a career-high four hit game at Utah last Friday, which she replicated again four days later at New Mexico State.

This span of games also saw the emergence of the duo of Shockey and sophomore outfielder Dakota Kennedy, who combined to average between three and four hits and four RBIs per game in the batter’s box and a perfect fielding percentage in the outfield.

“Honestly, I love playing with her,” Kennedy said of Shockey. “We communicate so well in the outfield. I think we work together really well 1-2 in the lineup, so I think it’s a nice 1-2 punch.”

Seeing this pair progress throughout the season, Lowe believes that when they thrive at the top of the lineup, the rest of the team builds off their energy.

“When (Shockey) and Dakota are doing a good job, then we really catch fire towards the middle to the lower half of our lineup,” Lowe said.

Playing under Arizona softball Hall of Famer and member of the 2001 national championship Toni Mascarenas for the 16u Orange County Batbusters Sith club team in 2022, Shockey, along with current teammates Emily Schepp and Ryan Maddox, won the Alliance National Championship.

Shockey said that the experience of winning, tough coaching and being in pressure situations helped prepare them for college and set the bar higher.

“Being in those championships have just made all of us just want to win here even more because we know what it’s like.”

Shockey, who noted in her bio on the team website that a large reason for her coming to Arizona was to “be part of a legacy,” heard first hand prior to her arrival in Tucson how significant the program culture is to former players, with the way that Mascarenas “wears that A with so much pride.”

Listening to the illustrious history from Mascarenas, along with 1996 Pac-12 Player of the Year and Women’s College World Series Most Outstanding Player Jenny Dalton, Shockey is more inspired to continue the legacy.

After nearly two weeks on the road, Arizona is set to host No. 22 Oregon (23-13) from Friday-Sunday at Hillenbrand Stadium in what will be the Wildcats’ second-to-last home series of the regular season. UA has won games against ranked teams, but have yet to secure a series win against them this season.

A series win against the Ducks, which are coming off an impressive series win over No. 9 Washington last weekend, would be a “good testament to who we are”, according to Shockey.

“I think we’re just building up endurance honestly and I think we’re on a roll right now and I trust this team 100% to go out there and fight,” Shockey said. “We’re a gritty team.”