The Stanford Cardinal swept Arizona baseball in a three-game series over the weekend in Palo Alto, Calif.
The series loss dropped the Wildcats to 27-15 overall and 9-12 in the Pac-12 Conference.
Game one of the series seemed to be in favor of Arizona as the Cats lead off early with a single up the right by Cal Stevenson followed by a single by JJ Matijevic. Jared Oliva was able to bring Stevenson home with a sacrificed fly.
Arizona added another run to the board in the fourth with a two-out single by Louis Boyd to bring in Cesar Salazar, but Stanford responded with right fielder Brandon Wulff hitting a solo home run to left center off Arizona left-handed pitcher Cameron Ming.
The Wildcats lead the game in to the seventh inning with a 2-1 lead, but Stanford turned it around in the bottom half. Wulff reached on an error advancing to second, followed by Maverick Handley with a double bringing in Wulff to tie the game. Stanford’s Matt Winaker added another run to the board with a double to right giving Stanford a 3-2 lead.
Ming went 6 1/3 innings, giving up six hits and two earned runs. Ming was relieved by right-handed pitcher Michael Flynn to get the final two outs of the inning.
Arizona couldn’t cross the plate in the last two innings handing the game one to the Cardinal 3-2.
It was a battle through game two of the series, but Arizona fell short to the Cardinals 4-2 on Friday. Stanford got on the board immediately in the first with a home run by Winaker off of Arizona left-handed pitcher JC Cloney. Cloney kept the Cardinal off the board through the next four innings.
Arizona’s Cory Voss lead off the Cats in the fifth with a single followed by Nick Quintana with a walk. Louis Boyd dropped down a bunt to score Voss and tie the game 1-1.
Stanford answered in the bottom half of the inning adding one run to take the lead, but Arizona responded quickly in the sixth with two runs. Stevenson opened the inning with a walk followed by Oliva hit a sacrificed bunt but reached due to a throwing error by Stanford. Matijevic added one to the board with a single to right field to score Stevenson, followed by Alfonso Rivas with a RBI single grabbing the Cats first lead of the game 3-2.
The Cardinal didn’t hesitate to tie the game in the bottom of the sixth with a solo home run by Daniel Bakst. Arizona was scoreless in the seventh, but Stanford was able to break the tie in the bottom with shortstop Nico Hoerner hitting a single to left field to bring in Winaker to score the winning run.
Stanford had no intention of taking their foot off the gas pedal as they won the final game of the series 3-1 Saturday afternoon. Arizona offense went three up three down through the first three innings due to Cardinal left-handed pitcher Chris Castellanos.
Arizona pitcher Cody Deason gave up two runs in the bottom of the third with a double RBI by Hoerner to bring in Winaker followed by a single RBI by Dan Bakst to bring in Hoerner. The Cardinal held off the Cats in the fifth and was able to cross the plate once more leaving the Cats trailing behind 3-0.
The Wildcat’s were unable to get onto the board through the next three innings until Matijevic hit a home run to centerfield adding one to the board.
Arizona baseball will stay on the road for their next game against Santa Clara on Monday, May 1 at 3 p.m. The Wildcats will be back at Hi Corbett on Friday, May 5 at 7 p.m. for a three-game series against the Washington Huskies.
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