In a year full of adversity, it was only fitting that Alyssa Palomino-Cardoza had the hit that punched Arizona softball’s ticket to the Women’s College World Series.
She’s been through the wringer during her Wildcat career, overcoming enough hardship in six years that some athletes never incur in a lifetime.
First, the injuries: Palomino-Cardoza tore her right ACL on the first day of fall practice of her freshman season. She tore the left one in a practice right before the postseason of her redshirt freshman season.
Then came the unprecedented: the coronavirus pandemic canceling her redshirt senior season and, for a while there, putting her career in jeopardy.