Arizona Wildcats National Champions!

[Bball Girl]

All hail, Arizona! Thy colors Red and Blue
Stand as a symbol - of our love for you.
All hail, Arizona! To thee we'll be true
We'll watch o'er and keep you, All hail! All hail!




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[spooky]

Congrats, Cats. I'll admit I didn't think they could do it at the start of the season. I definitely was pulling for Northwestern, 'cause pulling for UCLA or Arizona is the softball equivalent of pulling for Tennessee or UConn, but there's no denying that Arizona deserved it. Congrats as well to Northwestern for a great run, and for doing their part to break up the Pac10 party.

Arizona's got a tough job upcoming in trying to replace Hollowell and Champion. Mowatt's no Hollowell, but she's really good. Amanda Williams is a dynamite incoming pitcher, but she'll need to produce immediately if the Cats want to repeat.

[ChipperF1]

If you get to the national championship, at least score a run and come to compete. My alma mater did not perform in a competitive fashion in the final series.
Congrats Arizona for showing the difference between a champion and a wannabe.

[Bball Girl]

I enjoyed watching the purple wildcats all series. They played with guts and heart and I love their young coaches and their freshman shortstop....what a player she is. NW was my handsdown favorite team after UofA.

But coaching was the difference in the NC games, the AZ kids executed the game plan to perfection in game 1. NW came back and made some good adjustments in Game 2 but the AZ's fielding stayed strong. Champion and Lowe and Balko and Mowatt (as a batter) were just amazing.

Hollowell set a new series strikeout record, Lowe set a new record for runs and tied a record for steals.

I loved Arizona's agressive style of batting and running the bases. I heard that Lowe and Champion only had 2 errors all season and that Lowe was something like 34 of 36 in stolen bases.

[Bball Girl]

Thanks Alicia for 4 wonderful years!

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And thanks to Autumn Champion, Kelly Nelson and Leslie Wolfe. You've made UofA softball better...especially Autumn!

[Bball Girl]

http://www.arizonaathletics.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=1600&ATCLID=294573

PHOENIX--Major League Baseball's Arizona Diamondbacks, in the thick of the National League West division race, took note of accomplishments by different pennant-class players to the south Wednesday in feting the Arizona softball team for its recent NCAA Softball Championship.

The Diamondbacks recognized the team on the field prior to the D-Backs-Giants night game at Chase Field.

UA coaches and players on hand were assistants Larry Ray and Nancy Evans, pitcher Leslie Wolfe, catcher Callista Balko, outfielders Adrienne Acton and Jill Malina, and infielders Chelsie Mesa, Laine Roth and Danielle Rodriguez. Former player and 2001 NCAA champion Erika Hanson also attended the recognition. The rest of the team, including seven-time NCAA champion coach Mike Candrea and Women's College World Series MVP Alicia Hollowell, were preparing for camps or other summer softball action and not able to attend.

UA capped its seventh championship June 2 in Oklahoma City with a sweep over Northwestern. The Cats finished 54-11 and made it through NCAA play with a record of 10-2 -- 5-1 in regional and super regional play, and a 5-1 mark at Oklahoma City's WCWS. It gave UA two national titles in the past six years and seven since its first in 1991.

A number of players also joined former Chicago Cubs star and current D-Backs color analyst Mark Grace in the booth for a brief interview during the game's telecast on Fox Sports Net Arizona.

"It was really thoughtful of a major league baseball organization to recognize the achievement of a college softball team from within the state," said Hanson, who works with the softball team as a marketing associate for the athletics department. "The players on hand really appreciated the recognition, although we were pulling for the Diamondbacks to win the game." San Francisco somewhat spoiled the night with an 11-4 victory over Arizona.