It was too little, too late for the Arizona baseball team.
Despite a late surge from the No. 14 Wildcats, USC used a four-run sixth inning to even the Pacific 10 Conference series with a 7-5 win Sunday night and set up a rubber match Monday at noon.
“”We came out pretty poor on our part,”” said UA second baseman Colt Sedbrook, who was 0-for-3. “”We should have carried over the momentum that we had from (Saturday) night.””
For six innings, USC starter Ryan Cook kept Arizona off balance, limiting them to just four hits. No Wildcat reached second base until designated hitter Bill Rhinehart’s lead-off double started the seventh.
Cook (7-2) went 7 1/3 innings, giving up five runs on eight hits. He struck out four.
“”(Cook’s) velocity was up a lot, he was doing a good job of mixing his pitches,”” Sedbrook said. “”I think he really had a good plan with us and he kept to that plan and was very successful with it. We couldn’t get on until the later innings.””
UA head coach Andy Lopez said he was “”shocked”” by what he perceived to be a lack of effort early on in the game.
Added first baseman C.J. Ziegler: “”It was flat. For the first five or six innings, we came out and didn’t have a plan (during) at-bats. And it showed.””
Down 6-0 after Rhinehart’s double in the seventh, third baseman Brad Glenn then hit a double of his own to score Rhinehart.
An inning later, the Wildcats narrowed it to 6-5 on Rhinehart’s second career grand slam, Arizona’s first of the season. But Trojan closer Paul Koss slammed the door on any chance of a comeback, getting out of the inning before a 1-2-3 ninth for his NCAA-best 15th save.
USC’s four-run sixth inning proved to be the Wildcats’ undoing, when the Trojans got to UA starter David Coulon – starting in place of an injured Brad Mills, who was out with a back strain – and reliever Cory Burns on three hit batsman, two hits, an error and a walk.
“”We didn’t pitch the way we had to in the sixth inning,”” Lopez said. “”That was the ballgame.””
The loss dropped the third-place Wildcats (36-12, 11-6 Pac-10) two-and-a-half games behind first place No. 10 ASU, which finished off a sweep of No. 21 UCLA on Sunday. USC (24-23, 7-10) remains in eighth place in the conference.
Coulon (3-3) took the loss for Arizona despite 5 1/3 solid innings that saw him give up five runs, three earned, on five hits.
“”David did a great job with what he could, we couldn’t get him any run support,”” Sedbrook said.
Extra bases
Lopez said he expects to have Mills back next week.
