With an uncharacteristic crack of his bat, Arizona baseball second baseman Colt Sedbrook sent the barrel of his aluminum-composite bat toward the third base dugout.
Meanwhile, as the handle remained in the senior’s hands, the baseball snuck its way through the left side and into the outfield for his third RBI base hit of the ball game.
“”I can’t believe that, I’ve never seen that happen,”” Sedbrook said of his shattered bat. “”I didn’t even see the ball, I was more worried about the bat going into (the Wolverines’ dugout) because I thought I let go of it.
“”But it was really cool,”” he added. “”I got an RBI out of it and a hit so that made it worth it.””
Sedbrook’s broken-bat single came as a fitting example of the way his last couple weeks have gone.
Over the Wildcats’ last six games, Sedbrook has hit .577 with 15 base hits and nine RBI’s. With the three-hit, three-RBI game Sunday, the senior extended his season-long hitting streak to nine games in the midst of Arizona’s (34-15, 8-10 Pacific 10 Conference)11-4 win over Utah Valley State (14-34-1). The victory made a sweep of the Wolverines and put an end to the Wildcats’ non-conference season.
“”(Sedbrook) is hot,”” said head coach Andy Lopez. “”It’s good to get hot at the right time. Nobody ever remembers how you start, only how you finish. But he’s just playing great baseball right now.””
While Sedbrook continued his consecutive-game hitting streak, first baseman C.J. Ziegler began his streak anew after having his 18-game streak snapped in Arizona’s 7-0 series-clinching win Saturday evening.
Ziegler bounced back from his 0-3 performance in the second game of the series with a 3-5 day Sunday including his 16th home run on the year – a solo shot to center field. The home run moved the senior into ninth in the program for most homers in a single season.
Ziegler and Sedbrook were not the only source of Arizona’s offense Sunday as a total of nine Wildcats finished with hits while four collected multiple base knocks.
Right fielder Jon Gaston blasted Arizona’s only other home run of the day in the form of a solo shot in the fourth.
“”We swung the bats well again today,”” Lopez said. “”We got a lot of two-out base hits which is good. We’re really looking to get more of those two-out hits so that was very nice.
“”Overall we’re just playing good baseball and that’s what we’re always trying to focus on,”” he added.
The Wildcats looked impressive from the mound for the second day in a row as left-hander Eric Berger (6-3) went five innings allowing only a pair of runs on two-hits while recording five strikeouts to pick up his sixth win of the year.
Berger’s strong performance Sunday came as a compliment to teammate David Coulon’s (7-3) stellar seven-inning, three-hit performance Saturday night as the Wildcats went on to shutout the Wolverines with the aid of reliever Daniel Schlereth, who closed the book on the contest with two innings of no-hit ball.
“”These wins definitely help (with our confidence),”” Berger said. “”We’re not taking anybody lightly. Every game and every out is important so we are happy to just get some wins.””
