Arizona baseball continued their win streak at home Wednesday night against in-state foe Grand Canyon University. Arizona utilized their bullpen during the game and was able to hold off the Antelopes for 3-2 victory.
It was a pitchers duel through the first three innings with Cody Deason on the mound for Arizona for the first two innings and then was then Seve Romo in the third.
Neither team could score in the first three frames but GCU was able to grab ahold of a lead via an unearned run due to a wild pitch in the top of the fourth.
The Cats were ready to come back in the fourth as JJ Matijevic started the momentum with a double to left center field. Arizona continued to rack up runs with Shane Martinez getting walked bringing in Matijevic followed by a Cesar Salazar single to left field bringing in Cal Stevenson and Nick Quintana. Arizona quickly took a 3-1 lead against the Lopes.
Arizona reached back into their bullpen and relieved Romo with Alfonso Rivas. GCU was able to pick up another unearned run during the top of the fifth. Arizona looked to the bullpen once again taking out Rivas in exchange for Landon Faulkner to end the fifth inning. Faulkner stayed consistent through the remaining four innings as he retired 13 GCU batters leaving them scoreless.
“I want to give him [Faulkner] a big kiss,” said Arizona head coach Jay Johnson. “I have to give him some credit.”
Arizona shortstop Louis Boyd made his debut back onto the field after a recent arm injury.
“He looked like Ozzie Smith,” Johnson said. “It was unbelievable. In one practice it was clear how much we were missing him with what he did.”
The Wildcats held off GCU and took home another win (13-0) at Hi-Corbett.
“We really try to focus on the plays,” Johnson said. “There are definitely things we can do better. There were some positives so we wont focus on the result, we focus on what we need to do to get the result and we needed to pitch better and play better defense and we need to be opportunistic on offense and that’s what we did tonight.”
Arizona baseball will be back at Hi-Corbett Friday, March 31 at 7 p.m. as they take on the USC Trojans in a three-game series.
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