The Arizona baseball team bounced back from getting swept by Stanford with a dominant 16-10 win over Santa Clara Monday afternoon in Santa Clara, California. The offensive spark was a positive sign for the Wildcats who uncharacteristically struggled to put runs on the board against Stanford last weekend.
The Wildcats had a second inning for the ages when they scored 12 runs and batted around the lineup. To start the onslaught, the team got four straight RBI singles from Cal Stevenson, Jared Oliva, Mitchell Morimoto and J.J. Matijevic to make it 4-0. After an RBI ground out and two RBI walks, Stevenson came up again with the bases loaded and hit a bases-clearing double to right to give the team the 10-0 advantage. However, the carnage did not stop there as UA tacked on two more after Oliva and Morimoto had two more RBI hits.
Alfonso Rivas, a usual contributor in the middle of the Wildcats lineup, hit his fifth home run of the year in the third to make it 13-1 UA. Santa Clara started to chip away at the lead in the fourth after Tyler Meditz hit a three-run home run to left to decrease the deficit to nine.
UA did not get the start it hoped for out of Michael Flynn who had plenty of runs to work with. Flynn went three innings and gave up four runs on six hits with five strikeouts and two walks. Tylor Megill and Rio Gomez did a good job of keeping Santa Clara hitters at bay as they went a combined five innings while allowing one run on two hits with five strikeouts in relief.
The Wildcats added two more runs in the fifth after two fielder’s choice RBIs by Ryan Haug and Louis Boyd. The offensive outburst had to feel good for the No. 17 Wildcats who only put up five runs all weekend against Stanford. Out of all the Wildcats to contribute to the offensive outburst, Stevenson and Oliva were particularly impressive. Stevenson finished 2-3 with four RBIs and two runs while Oliva went an astounding 5-7 with three RBIs, two runs and two doubles.
UA will look to get back on track in the Pac-12 as it hosts the Washington Huskies for a three-game set beginning this Friday at 7 p.m. at Hi Corbett Field.
Follow Ross Olson on Twitter.
