Arizona baseball team rebounded by routing Air Force 14-2 on Tuesday night.
The offense for Arizona started quick when the Wildcats had zero hits but four runs on the board due to five walks and one error, before sophomore Scott Kingery recorded a double to give the Wildcats the 7-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning.
Kingery led Arizona in RBIs with three for the night.
“It was good that with runners in scoring position, we got them in when we needed to,” Kingery said.
Kingery acknowledged that the reason why Arizona got on base was because of the walks, but he said the team has been adjusting to the offense better after the two loses during the weekend.
“The walks mean that we’re seeing the ball better than we were in the past,” Kingery said, “and we are just executing better.”
Sophomore Kevin Newman led Arizona with three hits for the night. Newman also had one run batted in and two runs scored.
“We got some big hits when we had to [with] bases loaded,” head coach Andy Lopez said. “They came up empty a few times, but they got hits when they needed to. It was good to see them bounce back.”
Freshman Morgan Earman was the starting pitcher for Arizona. Earman pitched eight innings with five strikeouts and a total of 124 pitches.
“It was a good learning experience to get out there and get a little bit of a better start than the last one,” Earman said. “I got a lot of things adjusted.”
Earman said he appreciated the help the offense gave him.
“I’m really glad those guys can come out and put up as many runs as they did,” Earman said.
Earman added that he tried to just focus on throwing strikes to be able to execute better than he did before.
“The only thing I really had going was being [able] to mix stuff up,” he said.
Earman’s only issue during the game was walking players when there were two outs five times in total.
“I was glad to see Morgan Earman pitch, and [he] gave us another possibility with arm, which is nice,” Lopez said. “He’s a talented kid.”
The Wildcats will finish the two-game series against the Air Force on Wednesday at 1 p.m. Arizona will have another freshman starter, as Austin Schnabel will step on the mound.
—Follow Rose Aly Valenzuela @RoseAlyVal