Needing a way to focus his team after an uneven season, Mike Candrea turned to the favorite saying of football coach Chip Kelly, who told his Oregon Ducks to "win the day."
After Friday night's 6-0 super regional loss to Oklahoma at Hillenbrand Stadium, Candrea will ask even more of his Arizona Wildcats.
To win the day, the UA will have to win twice.
Down 1-0 in a best-of-three series, the team needs to beat the Sooners at 2 p.m. today and again in an if-necessary game immediately thereafter to advance to its 23rd Women's College World Series in 24 years.
Lose either game today, and Candrea will miss the Oklahoma City trip after 21 consecutive journeys. The UA failed to make the WCWS under interim coach Larry Ray in 2004.
"We've always been on the grind this whole season," designated player Lini Koria said. "We're trying to win the game, not to lose.
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"And we need to just understand that we have to play (the game) like it's our last."
To have any hope today, the Wildcats must figure out OU ace Keilani Ricketts, who was dominant early and good enough late.
The 6-foot-2-inch left-hander struck out seven of the first nine batters. She allowed runners in scoring position in the third, fourth, sixth and seventh innings, but dodged danger each time.
With runners in scoring position, the UA was 0 for 9.
"She shot us down in some crucial situations," Candrea said. The Sooners, conversely, scored their first five runs with two outs.
"One of the things they talk about is not wanting to be the last out," Sooners coach Patty Gasso said of her team.
UA starter Kenzie Fowler retired the game's first eight batters before Cierra Hughes slapped a ball over the head of center fielder Lauren Schutzler for a third-inning double.
Destinee Martinez then chopped to shortstop Alex Lavine, who muffed the play and was given an error, while Hughes went to third.
Brianna Turang then flared a single to left field to give the Sooners a 1-0 lead in the third.
The Sooners added four in the fourth because of Fowler's wildness and her teammates' mental mistakes.
Fowler gave up a walk to start the inning, then a single, then another base on balls to load the bases with no outs.
Katie Norris' warning-track sacrifice fly to left field plated the first run of the inning.
After recording an out, Fowler was called for an illegal pitch, which moved runners to second and third.
On a 2-2 count, Martinez hit a fly ball off the end of the bat to right field.
Karissa Buchanan broke back immediately, and wrongly, before trying to charge the ball.
She slipped on the grass, fell down and the ball landed, scoring two runs. The misplay was ruled a single.
As the Hillenbrand Stadium crowd sat stunned, Turang tripled Martinez home for a 5-0 lead.
"We just gave away too much too early," Candrea said.
To save her arm for a possible doubleheader today, Fowler was removed after four innings in favor of freshman Shelby Babcock.
Babcock's lone run over three innings came on a seventh-inning homer by Ricketts, the Sooners' cleanup hitter. Ricketts finished with 13 strikeouts and two walks in a complete-game shutout.
"It's really tough to struggle back against a pitcher of that caliber," Candrea said.
The UA can look to history for inspiration today.
Since the super-regional round was created in 2005, the Wildcats have swept only three times.
However, the Wildcats had lost the first game only once - two years ago at Stanford, when the UA rallied to win twice on the same day to punch a ticket to the Women's College World Series.
"It's going to take, not a good effort, but a special effort," Candrea said.
The super regional
• What: Arizona vs. Oklahoma at Hillenbrand Stadium
• Game 1: Oklahoma 6, UA 0
• Game 2: Today at 2 p.m. on ESPN
• Game 3: Today after first game, if necessary, on ESPN
