Arizona baseball won Sunday’s rubber match in a dramatic fashion to take the three-game series at Washington State.
The Wildcats (27-18, 11-13 Pac-12 Conference) beat the Cougars 2-0 in 11 innings to win their first series since March. After losing five in a row and 11 of its last 13, Arizona has won three of its last four games.
With the series tied 1-1, Sunday’s cat fight was tied 0-0 going into the 11th inning. The Wildcats scored the two runs on a dropped fly ball by Cougar center fielder Cameron Frost.
In the home half of the 11th inning, Washington State loaded the bases with a pair of singles and a hit batsman before UA closer Tyger Talley (5-0) produced a ground out to get the win.
Talley went three innings, giving up just three hits and one walk. Utility player Bobby Dalbec pitched eight innings, giving up five hits and one walk and striking out six.
Dalbec and shortstop Kevin Newman scored Arizona’s two runs, but the Wildcats were held to four hits and no UA player had a multi-hit game.
Wazzu evened the series with a 5-3 win on Saturday and stopped Arizona’s two-game run of scoring at least 14 runs.
Washington State second baseman Shea Donlin hit a single with the bases loaded and two outs in the seventh to score two and break a 3-3 tie and lift the Cougars to victory.
Second baseman Scott Kingery, Newman and catcher Riley Moore, in his 200th start for Arizona, went 0-for-10 combined. Moore is the first Wildcat to make 200 starts since Brad Glenn had 213 from 2006 to 2009.
Dalbec cut WSU’s lead to 2-1 with a solo home run in the second.
In the seventh, UA outfielder Jared Oliva hit an RBI double and then tied the game up when he ran home on a Cougar error.
Nathan Bannister (6-2) took the loss after giving up five runs on 11 hits in 6.2 innings of work.
Kingery’s 19-game streak of safely reaching base came to an end.
On Friday, the Wildcats beat the Cougars 14-5, thanks to 15 hits and a season-high 10 walks. All nine starters on offense got a base knock, six had multi-hit games, four scored at least two runs and three had three RBIs.
The 14 runs were the Wildcats’ most in a conference game since 2013 against USC and the most on the road in a Pac-12 game since they dropped 14 on Oregon State in 2009.
After going down 2-0 in the first inning, the Wildcats responded by scoring 10 runs spread out over the third, fourth, fifth and sixth innings to take the lead.
Cody Hamlin (5-3) pitched eight innings, giving up four runs on 10 hits and one walk to earn his first win since March.
In the fifth, Moore started a five-run inning with an RBI double. After Dalbec got hit by a pitch, designated hitter Michael Hoard drove in Moore.
J.J. Matijevic hit a home run over the wall in straightaway center, his second long ball in as many games and his 10th RBI in those two games.
Moore hit two triples and had three RBIs, right fielder Zach Gibbons drove in three runs, Hoard scored three runs and Matijevic also hit a double, scored twice and had three RBIs.
Up next for the Wildcats is Washington this weekend, their last Pac-12 home series.
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