The Arizona baseball team completed a four-game sweep of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee this weekend. Here is a quick look at how each game went down.
Thursday: Arizona wins 14-3
Fresh off the Wildcats losing the home opener against Grand Canyon University a couple days prior, Arizona took the field looking to bounce back and that they did. This game was already over by the time fans were still entering the ball park as the Cats scored 8 runs in the first inning. Nik McClaughry, Tanner O’Tremba and Chase Davis all collected at least three hits. Davis launched a home run over the Terry Francona Hitting Center, while Blake Paugh drove in 3 runs.
Freshman Anthony Susac earned his first start, tossing five innings while allowing 3 runs on six hits en-route to his first career collegiate win. George Arias Jr. allowed 2 runs in relief before Trevor Long and Jonathon Guardado combined to throw three shutout innings to close the game.
Friday: Arizona wins 9-1
After scoring 8 runs in the first inning on Thursday, this game was highlighted by a gem from starter TJ Nichols followed by some late inning offense.
Nichols tossed six innings of one-run ball, allowing four hits to go along with a career-high nine strikeouts and two walks.
Arizona combined to score 7 runs in the seventh and eighth innings, highlighted by four walks drawn in the seventh inning. Daniel Susac, O’Tremba, Garen Caulfield and Noah Turley all collected two hits. Caulfield led the team with three RBIs.
Arias and Holden Christian combined to toss three shutout innings to close the game.
Saturday: Arizona wins 9-1
The Friday and Saturday scores wound up the same in favor of the Cats.
Starter Garrett Irvin delivered another gem for the Wildcats pitching staff, allowing five hits across six shutout innings to go along with three strikeouts and one walk.
Davis hit his second long ball of the series, while freshman Tommy Splaine saw his first career start behind home plate and hit his first career collegiate home run. McClaughry collected his second three-hit game of the series
Long delivered two shutout innings in relief before Javyn Pimental allowed 1 run in the final inning but still closed out the game.
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Sunday: Arizona wins 8-6
It was a wild start to this game for both teams. After Milwaukee got on the board first with 1 run off starter Dawson Netz in the top half of the first inning, the Wildcats countered with 4 runs of their own off RBI hits from O’Tremba and Mac Bingham.
Milwaukee followed with 5 runs in the second inning to take a 6-4 lead off a number of hard hits a couple of errors from the Arizona defense. That was all Milwaukee would score the rest of the afternoon.
Netz finished the afternoon taking the no-decision, allowing 6 runs (two earned) on eight hits over 3.1 innings to go along with two strikeouts and one walk.
Arizona took the lead back with another 4-run frame in the fourth inning off a home run from Turley and RBI hits from Daniel Susac and O’Tremba.
Daniel Susac and O’Tremba each collected three hits as did sophomore Cameron Laliberte (who entered the game with two career hits.)
“It is fun to watch [Laliberte] play,” O’Tremba said. “I think the coolest thing about our team is that no matter who is in the game, we trust them to go in and get a hit. It is awesome, but we’re not surprised because we have a ton of great players on our team whether they are in the game or not.”
It was the fourth game this season already with three hits for O’Tremba.
“I think in baseball, you try to not to get too high and not too low,” O’Tremba said. “It is great to start the season off well, but it is a marathon and not a sprint. So it’s a long season and it’s awesome to be helping and supporting the team at the beginning. I hope I can do that throughout the whole year.”
The Wildcats bullpen showed up in a big way in this game. Josh Randall, Eric Orloff and Chris Barraza combined to allow one hit over 4.1 shutout innings out of the bullpen before closer Christian pitched the final 1.1 innings to close out the win and series sweep for the Wildcats.
“It is hard to win four games against anybody,” head coach Chip Hale said. “[Milwaukee] got better every day. They fought us hard. They hadn’t been outside. The first game it showed and every game since then, they played better and better so it is good for us to develop. We know we can play better. and we thank them for coming out.”
Up next for Arizona is a game against Dixie State University on Tuesday at Hi Corbett Field with first pitch scheduled for 6 p.m. MST. Quinn Flanagan will take the mound.
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