New Arizona baseball head coach Jay Johnson did not waste
any time making a strong first impression with his new club as the Wildcats won
their first series against No. 24 Rice University in the skippers’ debut this
weekend in Houston, Texas.
Not since 2008
against Georgia had the Wildcats won a series against a ranked opponent on the
road to start the season.
The Wildcats won the opener on Friday by a score of 8-1
followed by another win the next day by a score of 6-2. The prestigious
baseball program in Rice were able to salvage the series finale by defeating
Arizona on Sunday by the score of 4-3.
The 2016 season opened with a dominant performance by junior
college transfer lefty JC Cloney who went seven innings giving up only one run
while striking out nine with no walks.
Coach Johnson described Cloney’s performance to the site
D1Baseball as “stellar.”
“I knew he was good — the day after I was hired
I was on a plane, and the first person I met with was him. It was right during
the draft, and I wanted to make sure we got him here. It was a great
performance,” Johnson told D1Baseball.
The club was led offensively in the season
opener by senior infielder Cody Ramer who went 2-4 with 2 RBIs. Ramer finished
the series with 6 hits, which is one more than his hit total in the entire 2015
season.
A bulk of Arizona’s runs came through putting
pressure on the defense with small ball, being aggressive on the base paths and
executing with runners in scoring position.
Game two was a tight ball game until the eighth
inning when Arizona broke the 2-2 tie by putting up four runs. The offensive
theme of the first game was present again in game two and will serve as the
team’s identity on offense moving forward.
The inning started when first baseman Ryan
Aguilar hit a single to left and then moved all the way to third on a bunt by
star player third baseman Bobby Dalbec. Aguilar would come around to score on a
suicide squeeze by SS Louis Boyd who moved to second on an error by the first
basemen.
Chaos ensued following another bunt by
infielder Sawyer Gieseke with runners on second and third. Both runners came
around to score on an errant throw by the third basemen to first. The first
basemen then made another off-target throw to the catcher which allowed Gieseke
to go to second. Gieseke later scored on a sacrifice fly by Cesar Salazar.
Bobby Dalbec came in to pitch following 6.1
strong innings by lefty Cameron Ming who gave up two runs on six hits. Dalbec
finished the game without allowing a run while capturing his first win of the
season.
After the game Coach Johnson recognized the
value of wins over tough opponents and how wins come in several shapes and
forms.
“To come out last night and play solid, be in a tight game
tonight with it being 2-2 in the eighth inning and to find a way to win is a
good start,” head coach Jay Johnson told Arizona Athletics. “It’s not going to
be clean all the time for any team in the country. It’s good for us to be here
and to be able to win a couple games.”
The Cats were unable to complete the sweep on
Sunday as the Owls scored one in the seventh and two in the eighth to take a
4-2 lead which would go on to be the final score. The Wildcats were led on
offense by converted second basemen JJ Matijevic.
Arizona received another solid outing from a
starting pitcher as Nathan Bannister went 6 innings while giving up two runs
with three strikeouts. The bullpen was unable to preserve the 3-2 lead after
Bannister was lifted.
Despite not being able to complete the sweep,
the Wildcats put on an impressive performance in its first series of the season
against a high-quality team in Rice. The Wildcats will look to build off their
hot start as they travel to Beaumont, Texas to play Lamar tonight.
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