No. 10 Arizona (3-0) will resume Tuesday night’s game at Long Beach State (1-2) Thursday at 3 p.m. Due to rain, the umpires postponed the game in the bottom of the eighth inning. The Wildcats were trailing 5-4 at the time.

“We didn’t play good enough in the middle innings,” head coach Andy Lopez said.

Arizona right-handed pitcher Nick Cunningham made his second career start for the Wildcats on Tuesday night. Tuesday’s start could have been an opportunity for the senior to finally crack the weekend starting rotation, since Lopez announced recently that the Sunday starter’s spot in the pitching rotation is not set in stone.

Cunningham coasted through the first two innings, but gave up a triple and sacrifice fly in the third inning to tie the game at 1.

Then, in the fourth inning, Cunningham balked after an error by his third baseman Brandon Dixon. The error appeared to rattle Cunningham, as Long Beach State went on to strike for four runs in the inning.

Cunningham worked his way out of the inning, but his night was over. The senior left the game after only pitching 4 innings and with Arizona losing 5-1.

The Wildcats’ relentless offense struck back with three runs in the next two innings, and with Arizona freshman Tyger Talley containing the Dirtbag bats, the Wildcats entered the seventh inning trailing only 5-4.

But that was it, as the Long Beach State relief pitchers silenced the Arizona offense and kept it from scoring following the sixth inning.

Rain began to fall in between the seventh and eighth innings, but play continued.

However, in the bottom of the eighth, the rain became too intense, and the game was postponed until Thursday.

The game will resume exactly how it was left, with two outs in the bottom of the eighth. Long Beach State had runners on first and second base. Arizona senior relief pitcher Augey Bill (1-0) was pitching and had a 2-1 count on Dirtbag shortstop Michael Hill.

Tomorrow’s scheduled game will start immediately following the end of the postponed game.

“It’s a unique situation that doesn’t happen very often,” Lopez said about the postponement, “but we still have a chance to make things happen.”