After beating the No. 2 Arizona State Sun Devils on Thursday, the Stanford softball team was unable to carry its momentum into the weekend, losing its final two games of the regular season to the Arizona Wildcats in Tucson.

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Masaru Oka.

The Cardinal got a big win over Arizona State before striking out against the Arizona Wildcats on the road this weekend. Stanford will look to bounce back from the weekend’s losses when postseason begins on Friday vs. Lehigh.

By defeating the Cardinal (46-12, 11-10), the Wildcats (36-16, 13-8) clinched sole possession of third place in the Pacific-10 Conference, leaving Stanford alone in fourth.

After getting a terrific performance from junior pitcher Missy Penna in Thursday’s victory, Stanford’s pitching was sub-par on Friday and Saturday in the pair of losses. The Cardinal suffered its first run-rule defeat of the season Friday, falling 8-0 in six innings, and also lost Saturday 6-1.

On Friday, the game was never particularly close as Stanford was outplayed in every facet.

Cardinal starter Ashley Chinn, a freshman, was lit up to the tune of eight runs, 11 hits and five walks in the five-inning complete game. Chinn was not helped by the defense behind her, as Stanford committed three errors.

The offense fared no better, managing just two hits — a pair of sixth-inning singles from senior left fielder Tricia Aggabao and sophomore center fielder Alissa Haber — as the team was nearly held to a no-hitter. Cardinal batters also struck out ten times in six innings against Wildcat ace and reigning all-American Taryn Mowatt.

The Wildcats were in control of the game from the get-go as Mowatt struck out two in the top of the first en route to a 1-2-3 inning. In the bottom of the frame, Jenae Leles hit the first of three Arizona homeruns in the game to put the wildcats up 1-0.

They would not look back from there, tacking on three runs each in the second and fifth innings before Laine Roth led off the sixth with a solo homerun, giving the Wildcats an eight-run lead and the run-rule victory.

The Cardinal didn’t look much better the following day, dropping its final regular season contest by the score of 6-1.

Stanford’s offense showed a little more life on Saturday, pounding out eight hits, including three by Haber, but still only had one run to show for it all.

The pitching and defense were again not at their best, as Penna allowed seven hits, including two homeruns, while the Cardinal defense committed two errors which led to three unearned runs.

The game started off well for the Cardinal as Wildcat centerfielder Adrienne Acton was unable to make a play on Haber’s liner in the left-centerfield gap, allowing Haber to pick up her first triple of the season. Sophomore second baseman Shannon Koplitz would then knock her in with a sacrifice fly to right field. That would be all the scoring the Cardinal would muster on that day, however.

Stanford’s lead did not last long as Arizona jumped ahead 3-1 in the bottom half of the inning on back-to-back homeruns by Leles and Roth following a K’Lee Arredondo double. That was all the offense Mowatt would need as she shut out the Cardinal for the rest of the game.

The Wildcats would add three more runs in the bottom of the fifth after Stanford first baseman Erin Howe dropped a throw from Koplitz with two outs and the bases loaded, allowing two runs to score and the inning to continue.

In losing the final two games of its season, Stanford may have also lost its shot at hosting a regional. The Cardinal found out Sunday that although it is the No. 12 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament, it will have to travel all the way to Amherst, Mass. for regional play.

The 64-team field was announced Sunday evening and the Cardinal’s four-team regional begins this coming Friday. The regional field consists of Stanford, host University of Massachusetts, Lehigh and Princeton.

If the Cardinal wins the regional it will advance to the Super Regional the following weekend.

Stanford begins play in the regional this Friday against Lehigh.