(Photo: JOHN LOZANO/isiphotos.com) on April 5, 2021 Softball (22-8, 3-3 Pac-12) improved every game it played against ninth-ranked Arizona (22-5, 6-2 Pac-12) — and yet, even its very best wasn’t quite enough, as it fell to the Wildcats 6-1, 5-3 and 2-0 in the final three games of the series. One of the bright spots was the emergence of freshman Aly Kaneshiro as a designated hitter. Kaneshrio had a batting average of .400 in her limited number of at-bats coming into the weekend, and in this series, her strong hitting continued. The difference this weekend was how she compared to the rest of her teammates. In the first game on Friday, the Cardinal were down 4-0 going into the bottom of the fifth and still hadn’t recorded a hit all series, when Kaneshiro was inserted into the lineup as a pinch hitter. She promptly hit her first career home run, giving Stanford its first hit and first run of the series to make the score 4-1.