Arizona baseball knocks off No. 5 ASU and No. 2 Oregon State, booking trip to Pac-12 semifinals
The Wildcats are the only team to remain undefeated through two games
Arizona outfielder Brendan Summerhill celebrates in the dugout after a run in a game against the University of California Berkeley on March 12 at Hi Corbett Field. The Wildcats went on to win the game 10-5, ending the series with a full sweep.
May 25, 2023
The Arizona baseball team took down both No. 5-seeded ASU and No. 2-seeded Oregon State University in the pool play portion of the Pac-12 Tournament, pushing them ahead to the semi-finals. After a commanding victory over ASU on Tuesday, May 23, the Wildcats rallied against Oregon State on Wednesday, May 24, to keep their season alive and boost their resume for a possible postseason berth.
No. 8 Arizona vs. No. 5 ASU: Tuesday, May 23, at 10 a.m.
The Wildcats set the tone early, jumping out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning. After a strikeout to open the inning, Nik McClaughry launched a solo home run — his fourth of the season — which was then followed by back-to-back walks before Emilio Corona ripped a 2-RBI triple to drive in both runners. Mason White then hit a sacrifice-fly to drive Corona in from third to give the Wildcats a 4-0 lead. In the following inning, Garen Caulfield launched his fifth home run of the season to give the Wildcats a 5-0 lead.
The Wildcats were not done scoring, as they put up 4 more runs in the fourth inning to extend their lead to 9 runs. On the other side of the field, Wildcat starting pitcher Aiden May was dealing throughout his 6.0 IP, in which he gave up only 1 run while allowing four hits and striking out three ASU batters.
The Wildcats ultimately cruised to a 12-3 victory over their rivals from the North, as they outscored the Sun Devils 32-3 over their last 18 innings of play.
No. 8 Arizona vs. No. 2 Oregon State: Wednesday, May 23, at 10 a.m.
After a massive win over ASU less than 24 hours earlier, the Wildcats were back on the field, this time against No. 2-seeded Oregon State, a team that had swept the Wildcats a few weeks earlier.
Oregon State jumped out to an early 4-0 lead in the first inning. However, the Wildcats would cut the deficit to 1 run by the end of the second inning thanks to a 2-run homer by Chase Davis — his 20th of the season — and an RBI-single by McClaughry.
Both teams would go back and forth trading runs over the next few innings, as the Wildcats trailed 8-5 entering the bottom of the fifth. However, the Wildcats scored 7 unanswered runs between the fifth and sixth innings to take a 12-8 lead entering the seventh inning.
The Wildcats’ rally began after Tony Bullard ripped a solo shot in the fifth inning – his 11th of the season — to cut into the Wildcats’ deficit. In the following inning, Kiko Romero launched a 3-run homer — his 18th of the season — to give the Wildcats their first lead of the game. His home run was then followed by an RBI-triple by White and an RBI-double by Bullard, who scored on a passed ball soon after.
Unfortunately, the Wildcat lead was short-lived, as both teams entered the ninth inning knotted up at 12-12.
Oregon State opened the top of the ninth with runners on first and third with no outs, but Wildcat reliever Chris Barraza was able to escape the jam, retiring the next three batters in order to keep the score tied at 12-12.
After narrowly escaping a potential massive momentum shift in the top of the inning, the Wildcats were able to pull off the upset over No. 2 Oregon State following a walk-off RBI-single by Romero to send the Wildcats into the Pac-12 Tournament semifinals.
