After losing two of three over the weekend to then-No. 12 Cal State Fullerton in California, the Arizona baseball team remains unranked in this week’s Baseball America poll.
The Wildcats (9-2) took the Friday-night matchup between righties Preston Guilmet and Wes Roemer, 2-1, to equal their best start under head coach Andy Lopez at 9-0, but were then outscored 18-2 over the next two days to snap a 14-game winning streak going back to last season.
Longest winning streaks in the last 33 years
1974 21 wins
1998 16 wins
2006-07 14 wins
1999 13 wins
1974 13 wins
1975 12 wins
1995 11 wins
1974 11 wins (twice)
Arizona snapped its 14 game
winning streak Saturday against Cal State Fullerton
* In 1974, Arizona went 58-6, and lost in the NCAA Regionals. It was the first time the Wildcats lost two straight games all season
“”We didn’t play very good baseball,”” Lopez said Sunday. “”We played good baseball on Friday night, (but) I did a poor job of getting us ready on Saturday and Sunday.
“”I’ll get better at that, and we’ll get better.””
In his weekly chat, Baseball America’s Aaron Fitt was asked why Arizona remained on the outside looking in.
“”I still think (Arizona’s) a good team – and winning one game on the road against a top-12 team is not too shabby – but we weren’t going to bring them into the top 25 after they just lost a weekend series, especially the way they lost the last two games,”” he wrote.
North Carolina (3-0) jumped up to the top spot in the latest rankings after last week’s No. 1, Clemson, dropped a game to George Mason over the weekend. Fullerton (7-2), meanwhile, jumped two places to No. 10 in the rankings.
ASU (7-3) dropped a spot to No. 14 after going 2-2 last week.
Offensive production drops
Arizona’s bats were blazing as they entered Fullerton, hitting .367 as a team and averaging 9.8 runs per game.
But the Titans’ staff seemingly extinguished any offensive production behind stellar pitching from Roemer and right-handers Jeff Kaplan and Sean Urena.
The Wildcats hit a mere .202 against Titan pitching, leaving 20 men on base during the series, and were shut out for the first time Saturday in 82 games.
Extra bases
Center fielder T.J. Steele hit safely in all three games over the weekend. His hitting streak dating back to last season now sits at 19 games. … The two losses to Fullerton snapped a 14-game winning streak for Arizona that went all the way back to May 19, when ASU knocked off the Wildcats 15-6 in Tucson. … Arizona’s next opponent, Nevada-Las Vegas, lost two of three to Fullerton at home Feb. 9-11.
