After losing two of three games in Tempe one week ago, the Arizona baseball team will host rival ASU for one game today.
Though midweek games don’t count toward Pacific 10 Conference standings, the Wildcats are still looking forward to taking the field in the next chapter of the State Farm Territorial Cup Series.
“”We’re real excited,”” said outfielder Robert Refsnyder. “”We’re going to have a team meeting (on Monday), and it’s going to be a tough one. We’re going to grind it out, and you’ll see a different team from here.””
No. 22 Arizona (20-9, 2-4 Pac-10) won the Friday opener in its series against No. 5 ASU (21-6, 5-1), but fell in the next two games thanks to late-inning struggles and a lack of consistent scoring.
“”That’s baseball. It’s weird,”” Refsnyder said. “”Baseball’s a funny game. We’ll put up big numbers then sort of struggle.””
Head coach Andy Lopez said that he didn’t know who was going to get the start today, but Arizona has gone with young arms from the bullpen in the season’s earlier midweek series.
After dropping two of three to Oregon State during the weekend, Lopez said that fixing the offensive inconsistency is important.
“”We kind of disappeared a little bit, so we’ll work on that,”” Lopez said. “”We’ll get back on track, hopefully on Tuesday.””
Heyer named Pac-10 Pitcher of the Week
After throwing the first complete-game shutout of his career on Friday, Arizona pitcher Kurt Heyer has been named Pacific 10 Conference Pitcher of the Week for the first time this season.
Heyer’s shutout was the first thrown against Oregon State since 2008, a span of 139 games. The sophomore allowed only five hits and walked two batters while striking out nine Beavers.
The right-hander became the fifth pitcher in the conference to reach the five-win mark, and has won four straight weekend starts since getting a no-decision in a 6-5 win against Utah Valley.
Heyer has held opposing hitters to a .219 batting average in 2011 to go along with a 0.98 WHIP and 11 strikeouts per nine innings.
This is Heyer’s third career Pitcher of the Week honor after earning the award twice during his freshman season en route to being named to the All Pac-10 Team.