Grace Jenkins powers Arizona softball past Marshall in NCAA regional; UA to face Duke next

The senior outfielder smashed a pair of three-run homers to lead UA past Marshall 7-5 on Friday at the NCAA Tournament’s Durham Regional in Durham, North Carolina.

Jenkins has three home runs in her past two games and five in her past six.

Arizona (36-16) needed both bombs as Marshall (37-18) kept pushing. The Thundering Herd’s Sydni Burko also went yard twice, including a solo homer in the top of the seventh inning to trim the Wildcats’ lead to two runs. Reliever Jenae Berry got the final three outs to secure her second save and snap Arizona’s three-game losing streak.

The UA will face host and No. 12 overall seed Duke in a winners’ bracket matchup at 10 a.m. Saturday. Duke run-ruled Howard 10-1 earlier Friday.

Jenkins, the Big East Player of the Year in 2025 at UConn, has hit two home runs three times in her lone season as a Wildcat. She had two bombs and seven RBIs on May 13 at Texas Tech.

The stakes were big then; they were bigger Friday. Jenkins’ first home run gave Arizona a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first. The second made it 7-2 in the bottom of the fifth.

Marshall responded in the sixth as Chandler Hoskins’ one-out, two-run homer sliced the Thunder Herd’s deficit to 7-4. That was the last batter UA starter Jalen Adams would face. She allowed four runs on six hits in 5⅓ innings while improving to 21-9.

Freshman Rylie Holder retired two of the next three batters to keep the score at 7-4. After Burko took Holder over the wall to lead off the seventh, Arizona called on Berry to finish the game. The sophomore retired all three batters she faced.

Duke (40-14) slugged its way past Howard; four of the Blue Devils’ 10 hits were home runs.

The winner of Saturday’s matchup will advance to the championship round Sunday. The loser will face the winner of the Marshall-Howard game later Saturday.

Extra bases

– Jenkins drove in six runs — two more than Arizona scored in the previous three games combined.

– UA coach Caitlin Lowe altered the 4-5-6 spots in the lineup, and that change paid off in the fifth. Tayler Biehl moved up to the cleanup spot and hit a two-out RBI single to keep the inning going and set up Jenkins’ second three-run blast.

– Lowe and her staff pulled off a successful replay challenge in the top of the fourth. Marshall’s Bella Gerlach hit a would-be double to the wall in left-center. Arizona challenged the safe call at second base, and the umpires determined that second baseman Sereniti Trice tagged Gerlach just before her hand hit the bag.

– Five Wildcats were named to the NFCA All-West Region teams Thursday. Catcher Sydney Stewart and center fielder Regan Shockey made the first team; Adams, Biehl and Trice made the second team.

– Former UA coach Mike Candrea spent a half-inning in the broadcast booth. One of his former players, Jenny Dalton-Hill, is serving as the analyst for ESPN at the Durham Regional.

– Former Sabino High School and UA baseball pitcher Drew Calloway is in his first season as Marshall’s pitching coach. Calloway was a grad assistant for UA softball last season. He appeared in two games for UA baseball in 2022.