In order to keep its postseason dreams alive, the Arizona baseball team was in dire need of a series win at Washington this weekend.
Those dreams may be one step closer to being deflated, however, as the Wildcats (20-22, 6-9 Pacific 10 Conference) dropped the rubber match yesterday, 4-3. After falling 7-5 on Friday, Arizona rebounded with a 15-0 blowout victory Saturday at Husky Ballpark against Washington (30-16, 8-7).
“”We’re not mathematically eliminated (from the postseason), so until that day occurs we will continue to work towards getting to (the postseason),”” Arizona head coach Andy Lopez said. “”We’re obviously putting ourselves into a little bit of a corner by not doing what we need to do.””
Said junior shortstop Jason Donald: “”We very well could have taken two out of three this weekend, and really that’s what we should have done. But we didn’t get it done. We’re just going to have to keep fighting.””
Arizona had the tying run on third base in the ninth inning in the form of freshman center fielder T.J. Steele, but the Wildcats came up shorthanded in the end, as freshman right fielder Jon Gaston struck out to end the game yesterday.
Junior catcher Konrad Schmidt had two passed balls on the day, which allowed an unearned run to cross the plate. Arizona leads the Pac-10 with 19 passed balls on the year, 16 of which are credited to Schmidt.
Also, he was called for catcher’s interference on Friday.
“”We need to be a little bit more consistent defensively right now,”” Lopez said. “”That seems to be a little bit of a problem, so we’ll make a couple of adjustments. I’ll probably start catching (sophomore) Matt Denker here pretty soon. Hopefully that will solve one of the issues.””
Sophomore southpaw David Coulon was solid for the second straight week, as he allowed one earned run over six innings, scattered two hits and six walks and struck out seven.
“”David pitched well enough to win (yesterday),”” Lopez said. “”But we’ve got to do a better job behind the plate. When you’re going to play a close ballgame like that, you can’t allow that to happen.””
Redshirt freshman closer Daniel Schlereth (2-1) suffered the loss, as the lefty gave up an earned run over two innings.
Junior lefty pitcher Brad Mills (5-3) notched his fifth win of the year on Saturday as he gave up only six hits in eight innings, walking four and striking out eight Huskies. He pitched a one-hitter into the sixth inning.
“”You can’t say enough about the way David and Brad threw for us,”” Donald said. “”That’s what we need out of our pitching staff. We obviously gave Millsy a lot of run support, but we just couldn’t punch across a few runs (yesterday) for David.””
After scoring two runs in the first six innings, the Wildcats went off for 13 runs in the final three innings.
Donald and freshman first baseman Brad Glenn both hit two-run home runs. Glenn leads the team with seven homers on the year, while Donald has five.
“”I don’t think we could have played a better game than we did Saturday,”” Donald said. “”It really doesn’t get much better than that. It was a dominant effort.””
In the opener, senior second baseman Brad Boyer stole home for the second straight Friday. With Arizona trailing 3-2 in the fifth inning, Boyer knotted the game with his swipe, but the Huskies answered with a run in the bottom of the frame and three more in the seventh.
The Wildcats scored once in both the eighth and ninth innings, but it was too little too late.
Freshman right-hander Preston Guilmet (2-6) shouldered the loss, as he gave up seven runs – five of which were earned – in seven innings, walking none and striking out eight.
Boyer an only child?
Boyer, an only child, may have thought he encountered his long lost brother when the Huskies introduced freshman infielder Bradley Boyer into Saturday and Sunday’s games as a pinch hitter.
