The Arizona baseball team was back at Hi Corbett Field on Tuesday night where they defeated the San Diego State University Aztecs 13-4 behind a stellar performance from the Wildcats bullpen.
To sum up starting pitcher Avery Weems’ outing in one word Tuesday evening: short. The junior failed to make it out of the second inning as SDSU put up three quick runs on the board forcing manager Jay Johnson to the hill and rely on his bullpen the remainder of the night. In all, Weems finished giving up three runs off three hits in 1 2/3 innings of work.
“Not very good, nobody cares more than that guy he’ll be back and ready to go this weekend in some capacity,”Johnson said on Weems’ outing.
The Aztecs got to Weems fast as Jordan Verdon doubled allowing for teammates Matt Rudick and David Hensley to score giving SDSU an early 2-0 lead.
In what looked to be a long night for Arizona, turned out to be a longer night for SDSU. The ‘Cats responded and were able to tally up their first 11 runs within 3 ½ innings. No scoring play was more exciting than Alfonso Rivas’ two-run homerun in the bottom of the fourth inning off Aztecs reliever Adrian Mardueno giving Arizona a commanding 8-3 lead.
“It was a curveball, I just kind of had that feeling that pitch was going to come and I put a good swing on it.” Rivas said. “It felt really good off the bat I knew instantly.”
Arizona would add five more runs ballooning the scoreboard to 13 as the Aztecs would add one late run also.
Senior reliever Juan Aguilera (2-0), pitched a career-high three complete innings while giving up two hits, one walk and two strikeouts.
“I thought Juan did a good job,” Johnson said. “He leveled the game out throwing strikes he got them off balance a little bit and really got us a couple zeros when we needed a couple zeros.”
Arizona (6-6) is back on the field Friday, March 9 as the ‘Cats host a three-game series against the Bison of North Dakota State (6-6). First pitch is set for 6 p.m.
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Shortstop Travis Moniot was able to keep SDSU pinch-hitter Isaiah Parra from reaching first after a ground ball destined to dribble into left was clogged up by Moniot as he reached down to his right quickly gathering himself and making a leaping throw over to Rivas at first.
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