Arizona Baseball Completes Sweep of No. 13 OSU

Arizona Baseball brought the brooms this weekend against conference foe Oregon State Beavers, completing the three-game sweep.

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If the Wildcats were in need of a big weekend, they picked a perfect time to have it. Fresh off a tough three-game series against the Trojans last weekend, where they only won one of three games, Arizona responded in a big way, especially against No. 13 Oregon State.

Arizona kicked off the series with a huge win behind the unyielding pitching of Senior right-hander, Nathan Bannister. The Wildcats also used a flurry of offense in the fourth inning to propel them to a 6-1 victory.

In Game 2, the Cats picked up right where they left off turning in another great pitching performance coupled with timely and clutch hitting.

Veterans JC Cloney and Kevin Ginkel threw a combined nine strong innings, allowing only one run on just eight hits by the Beavers. The Wildcats broke the scoreless tie in the third inning after Senior outfielder Zach Gibbons launched a two-run triple down the right field line to put Arizona up 2-0.

That proved to be all the Wildcats needed, as they paced themselves to a 4-1 victory over the visiting Beavers.

With series victory in hand heading into Sunday, the opportunistic Wildcats entered the series finale looking to complete their third sweep of the season.

The game started out rough for Arizona, as Oregon State roughed up Freshmen Michael Flynn and Alfonso Rivas III a little. The two surrendered four runs (only one earned) on just three hits. It was Arizona’s mistakes fielding that gave the Beavers the early lead.

Persistence paid off as the Cats battled back, after trailing early. The team’s Mission this season has been CREED (Complete-Relentless-Execution-Energy-Do it for Josh). “Josh” being Josh Weaver, a dedicated 17-year-old Wildcat fan who unfortunately lost his battle to cancer just before the season started.

That fighting spirit carries on through this team and showed today as the Wildcats used a big 7th inning to take control of the game. Down 5-2 to the Beavers, Arizona started the offensive barrage with Gibbons once again coming through in the clutch, driving a single, scoring Louis Boyd and advancing Cody Ramer to third to pull the Wildcats to within two.

Arizona took the lead for good, when the third baseman Kyle Lewis singled up the middle, scoring JJ Matijevic, making it 6-5 in favor of the Wildcats.

Sophomore Cameron Ming who took over pitching duties to start the fourth inning, threw the final six innings of the game, allowing just one run on one hit (a solo homer by Oregon State’s Logan Ice). Ming also struck out six of 23 OSU batters he faced.

The persistent effort by Arizona gave the team the weekend sweep of the #13 ranked Beavers, and with the victories, the Wildcats improve to 31-16 (14-10) on the season. The victories make Arizona winners in 11 of their last 14 games moved the Cats (14-10) to third place in the Pac-12 behind Utah (13-8). This made Cesar Salazar very happy.

Related Story: Arizona Baseball: Team Chemistry off the Charts

Arizona will square off with rival ASU next weekend in a three-game set here at Hi-Corbett field, before hitting the road against Oregon the following week. The sweep definitely builds upon Arizona’s postseason resume, and really helps their case for making the NCAA Regionals next month. BearDown, Arizona, and congratulations on the sweep!