HEART OF THE ORDER
Mowatt-McKinney's performance still stands tall 13 years later
The Arizona softball sports information director reached out to the team's pitching coach, Ta ry ne Mowatt-McKinney, earlier this week about some interview requests.
“You' re pretty po pula rt his week ,” he told Mowatt-McKinney.
“This is the one week of the year I'm popular,” she joked.
It' s been 13 years since Mowatt-McKinney put the hulking world of Arizona softball on her diminutive shoulders and carried the Wildcats to the 2007 Women' s College World Series championship.
The WCWS has produced countless memorable moments and performances, but Mo watt-McKinney' s remains planted in the minds of those who watch it — not only because of its magnitude, but also because of its unexpectedness.
On a week when we celebrate what we're missing at the WCWS, thinking back about little 5- foot -6 Mowatt-McKinney out pitching Tennessee's 6-foot-3 legend Monica Abbott in a threegame series can help fill the coronavirus void.
“It was one of the greatest weeks of my life ,” Mo watt-McKinney said. “I remember pretty much everything vivid ly in my brain about that week.”
Mowatt-McKinney wasn't cut from the mold of former Arizona pitching stars like Jennie Finch or Alicia Hollowell, but she had the talent, just in a smaller frame.
Arizona lost to Tennessee in the second game of the tournament, dropping into the loser' s bracket. Then Arizona lost to Tennessee again in the first game of the best-of-three championship series. That meant Arizona had to play eight games — the maximum number of games a team could play to win the WCWS.
With a couple of extrainning games along the way, Arizona played 60 total innings. And Mowatt-McKinney pitched every single one. More than 1,000 pitches in all.
After the second loss to Tennessee, she thought she was finished.
“I got off the bus and saw my mom ,” Mowatt-McKinney said .“I didn't say a word. I just started crying and I couldn't stop. I was so tired.”
It was the first time that week she doubted herself.
Yet she bounced back to pitch a 10-inning shutout the next night and keep Arizona alive. But in the fifth inning, Tennessee had loaded the bases with no outs. Doubt crept in again with the middle of the order coming up.
“I had a conversation in my head like, `It's OK if you give up a run…' and then I remember stopping my train of thought,” she said .“I was like ,` No, don't even go down that road.'”
Mowatt-McKinney got out of the inning without allowing a run and Arizona eventually won 1-0.
She and the Wildcats finished off the championship run the next day.
Mowatt-McKinney was named the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament, and later won an ESPY Award for her performance.
Head coach Mike C andrea and pitching coach Nancy Evans had their concerns about not relieving Mo wattMcKinney. But the coaches never pulled the trigger.
“She was our best option at the time, and we felt like she would work through things ,” Candrea said. “She kept finding a way to get the job done.
“The gr it that she showed throughout the entire tournament was phenomenal. She was on fumes. It was one of those remarkable performances you see at the WCWS when people can do the impossible. That's what makes the World Series so special.”