Arizona baseball beats Stanford 12-1 and extends its win streak to eight

Kyle Kersey

April 8, 2024

Arizona’s Mason White after head on dive at the bottom of the third during game against UCLA March 29th. Wildcats taking the win with a walk-off. Final score 3-2 at Hi Corbett Field.

A pair of bombs and another strong bullpen performance helped Arizona extend its winning streak to eight games with a 12-1 drubbing of Stanford University on Monday afternoon.

It was another weekday bullpen game for Arizona. Freshman pitcher Josh Morano got the start for the Wildcats, surrendering 1 run over 1.2 innings. It was the first run Morano had surrendered over his 5.2 innings of work this season.

From there, however, it was smooth sailing for Arizona, as the Wildcats’ bullpen combined for 6.2 scoreless innings, allowing just two hits while striking out five and not allowing a single walk. Arizona’s pitchers have now given up just one walk in their last 118 batters faced. Bradon Zastrow accounted for the most outs, going 2.1 innings after Morano was pulled.

Stanford’s offense broke through first when Trevor Haskins hit a one-out single to left-center field to score Luke Lavin from second base in the bottom of the second. Haskins was the only Stanford hitter to get on base more than once in the game, going two for three with a pair of singles.

Meanwhile, Arizona’s offense was efficient, scoring 12 runs off just eight hits. Mason White led Arizona’s offensive production, going two for five with a pair of 3-run home runs, the first of which put the Wildcats ahead 3-1 in the top of the third. White now has 13 home runs on the season, good enough for second in the Pac-12, and leads the conference in runs batted in with 45.

The Wildcats added to their lead when Brendan Summerhill scored on a wild pitch in the top of the fourth. Then, the dam broke in the fifth inning. Kassius Thomas opened the inning by hitting TJ Adams and Richie Morales before walking Garen Caulfield to load the bases. With two outs, Thomas then walked Emilio Corona on four pitches to give the Wildcats a run. After Thomas was replaced by Ben Reimers, the Wildcats added 3 more runs off a walk, a hit by pitch and an error, scoring 4 runs in the inning without needing an RBI hit and giving Arizona a commanding 8-1 lead.

An RBI single from freshman Xavier Esquer, the first RBI of his career, and a second 3-run home run from White rounded out the scoring for the Wildcats, who were able to capitalize on shaky Stanford pitching to end the game via mercy rule in the eighth inning.

The win improves Arizona to 18-13 (10-5 in Pac-12) on the season, wrapping up a four-game road sweep in the Bay Area and positioning them second behind Oregon State University in the Pac-12 standings.