Arizona baseball dropped its fourth consecutive Pac-12 series after losing two out of three games to Stanford at Hi Corbett Field over the weekend.
“You have to manage the hurt,” Arizona head coach Andy Lopez said. “It’s easy to manage the joy; slaps on the back and easy nights, the food tastes great, the sun’s nice and the sky’s blue and the grass is green… Looking back on my life I’ve learned more from the hurtful times than the joyful times…”
Friday the Wildcats (19-30, 8-19 Pac-12) snapped a previous three game losing skid, earning a 3-2 victory over the Cardinal (24-21, 11-13). Right-handed senior James Farris (4-6) took the no decision, but carried Arizona with an 8.1 inning effort of two-run ball with five strikeouts. Also in that game junior second baseman, Trent Gilbert delivered a 4-5 performance at the dish with a run scored and run batted in.
However the next two contests didn’t go the Wildcats’ way.
Saturday night sophomore right hander Cody Hamlin (5-4) was shelled in five innings after allowing seven earned runs on 14 hits in Stanford’s 10-6 win. Arizona’s top four hitters in the batting lineup, Zach Gibbons, Kevin Newman, Scott Kingery and Trent Gilbert went a combined 0-16 in Saturday’s loss.
The Cardinal then took the rubber match on Sunday, defeating the UA 5-3. Six of 7.1 innings thrown by sophomore right-hander, Tyger Talley (1-3) were scoreless, but a pair of costly errors from junior left fielder Tyler Krause led to five runs scored by the Cardinal. Talley was tagged for all five runs, but only one of them was earned.
“I had really good command and I was executing all my pitches really well…,” Talley said. “I can’t let that [the errors] affect me; I just went back out there and did my job and that’s all I can do…”
Lopez was also pleased with his starter’s performance.
“He’s [Talley] really kind of grown into a starting pitcher and has really done a decent job,” Lopez said. “Tyger’s right there in the top two or three [pleasant surprises] of the season, I’d say.”
The five-run third inning was the only runs Stanford needed to take Sunday’s game and the series. A three-run bottom of the eighth was too little, too late for Arizona as Cardinal freshman southpaw Chris Castellanos slammed the door with a pair of perfect innings to earn his second save of the season.
“That’s happened to us a lot this year,” Lopez said. “Tough one inning, wind was a factor… we’ll bounce back.”
Kingery, who went 0-4 in Saturday’s loss, bounced back with a better performance at the dish on Sunday. The sophomore center fielder earned a hit in two at bats with a pair of walks as well. In total for the series, Kingery was 3-11 with a couple runs scored and as many walks.
This weekend Kingery was moved in the lineup from batting leadoff to third in the lineup. He said the change didn’t affect his approach at the plate.
“It’s a little bit different in the three hole—you get a lot of off speed than in the lead off spot,” Kingery said. “But either way I still look for my pitch and get one that I can drive.”
Arizona will hit the road again for another three-game Pac-12 series with California (20-25, 8-15), starting Friday.
