The Arizona baseball team’s newest members are wasting no time making new friends. Friday night it was Yavapai Junior College transfer Dillon Baird who won over the crowd with a grand slam in the 5th inning to give Arizona a six-run advantage.
Saturday it was freshman outfielder Bobby Coyle who stole the show and provided what became the game-winning RBIs in Arizona’s 15-7 win over Sacramento State (1-4).
“”That was a big win,”” head coach Andy Lopez said of Saturday’s contest. “”It feels good to finish on top,””
After the Hornets took a 4-3 lead in the top of the fourth, the No. 1 Wildcats (4-1) put together a rally of their own in the bottom of the frame.
Arizona began the inning with the first three batters reaching base with centerfielder T.J. Steele scoring off a Robert Abel single to knot the game at 4-4.
Then Lopez brought in Coyle to pinch-hit for left fielder Hunter Pace.
In his first career at-bat, the freshman roped a line drive into the gap in left center field.
Second baseman Colt Sedbrook and Abel both scored on the hit, giving Arizona a lead the Wildcats would not relinquish.
“”I was just trying to get the ball into the outfield and hopefully just get one of the guys from third to score,”” Coyle said of the hit. “”I got a pitch up in the zone, didn’t try to do too much, just hit it.
“”I guess it worked out.””
From then on, Sacramento State struggled at the plate while Arizona’s offense exploded for seven more runs en route to an eight-run victory.
Arizona’s starting pitcher David Coulon (2-0) earned the win despite an uneven performance.
After a lights-out effort in his first appearance last Saturday in which he recorded eight strikeouts while allowing one earned run through five innings, the lefty struggled at times throughout his five-inning effort yesterday.
The Hornets got to Coulon early with three base hits in the opening frame. Then Coulon hurt his own cause, overthrowing first baseman Brad Glenn on a pickoff attempt, setting up the game’s first run.
After the initial damage, Coulon appeared to settle in and retired the next six batters he faced with three outs coming by the way of strikeouts.
But in the fourth the floodgates opened as the Hornets used a trio of doubles to add three runs and retake the lead 4-3.
Another double and Arizona error led to two more runs in the fifth, putting an end to Coulon’s day in which the southpaw gave up four earned runs on seven hits while striking out seven.
“”Some shabby defense hurt him a little bit and he needed to be a little bit sharper,”” Lopez said of Coulon’s performance, “”but he was extremely sharp in his last outing so I’m sure he’ll be fine.””
