I couldn't be more proud of this team I coached today – Utah coach Amy Hogue
SEATTLE — Utah's squandered opportunities led to its demise, and its ousting from the Super Regionals, in a 2-1 loss to Washington at Husky Softball Field on Sunday.
The Utes’ season ends after scattering eight hits, while junior starter Katie Donovan, pitching for the second day in a row, surrendered only three hits, but it still wasn’t enough to pull off the upset.
“I couldn’t be more proud of this team I coached today,” Utah coach Amy Hogue said. “They worked their guts out to be prepared to compete at the highest level.”
Two-time Pac-12 Player of the Year Hannah Flippen said she and her teammates left everything on the field.
“We played with a lot of guts,” Flippen said. “We put it all out there. We played with our heart on our sleeve and gave it all we had.”
Donovan (18-10), who allowed only two earned runs on three hits and three walks with two strikeouts, utilized a newly learned drop ball to contain Washington’s potent offense and keep the Utes in the game.
“I went right at them,” Donovan said. “And our defense made some awesome plays behind me.”
Hogue said Donovan’s drop ball is what she needed to round out her skills, and what led to her success against the Huskies.
“Katie worked really hard this year to complete her bag of tricks,” Hogue said. “She didn’t have a drop ball. She worked on it and worked on it. Today, it was phenomenal.”
Washington took an early lead in the first when Donovan put two runners on base with a single and a walk. Donovan then struck out Casey Stangel swinging. Ali Aguilar advanced to third on a fielder’s choice, then scored on a wild pitch to give Washington a 1-0 lead.
Utah put runners on first and second with Anissa Urtez’ single up the middle and Bridget Castro’s walk, but three straight swinging strikeouts halted the Utes' rally.
Donovan put two runners on to start the second with a walk and base hit to center field. Kelly Burdick laid down a sacrifice bunt to move the runners to second and third, then Aguilar hit a sacrifice fly to right field, scoring Trysten Melhart and putting the Huskies up 2-0.
The Utes' fourth inning looked promising but fell flat after loading the bases and walking away with no runs.
Flippen led off the inning with a single up the middle, followed by a base hit by Urtez. Then Castro and Kelly Martinez both popped out.
Heather Bowen’s single ricocheted off Washington pitcher Taran Alvelo’s glove to load the bases, but Kay Kay Fronda grounded out to end the inning.
Utah's Delilah Pacheco singled to start the fifth inning, but was thrown out at second on a fielder’s choice on BreOnna Castaneda’s hit to Washington’s second baseman Sis Bates, who made a diving stop and flipped the ball from her glove to shortstop Aguilar for the forced out.
Alyssa Barrera then doubled to right center, moving Castaneda to third. Alvelo intentionally walked Flippen to load the bases, then Urtez smacked a line drive to right field, where Melhart made a diving catch, letting Castaneda tag up and score, closing the gap to 2-1.
Donovan got two ground-outs and a pop-out to left field for a one-two-three bottom of the inning.
The Utes let another opportunity get away in the sixth after putting runners on first and second.
Martinez was hit by the first pitch, and Bowen reached first on a fielder’s choice, where Martinez was forced out at second. Freshman Ryley Ball filled in for Bowen as a pinch runner, and Fronda’s single to left field put runners on first and second.
Ball got a late jump stealing third, however, and was gunned down sliding head first. One pitch later, Pacheco hit a blooper to the third baseman for the final out.
Donovan registered another one-two-three inning in the sixth, with two ground-outs and a fly-out.
Castenada led off the top of the seventh with a pop-out to right field, followed by Barrera’s pop-out to shortstop. Flippen followed with a pop-out to short, ending the game and the Utes’ season.
“Losing is always frustrating, but this team, you can’t be mad at them,” Hogue said. “You can’t be frustrated with them for more than two seconds, because they did what they were supposed to do.
“They put it all out there and went after it. They didn’t stand there and hope. They swung on the counts they should have, they didn’t get on their heels, it just didn’t go our way today.”