Arizona Baseball: Wildcats SWEEP the No. 18 ranked Bears

Arizona Baseball beat the Bears 8-5 last night in extra innings, four extra innings, but their dugout stole the show.

The Wildcats took game one on Friday by a 3-0 final, and they were prepared to win game two, but little did they know they would be playing all night long to get it!

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The Arizona Baseball team was still out on the field playing baseball in Northern California deep into the night, and into the wee morning hours trying to take down the Bears in their home.  A normal baseball game lasts nine innings; this one went 13! The Wildcats could have put the Bears out of their misery earlier, but they just couldn’t make that happen much to the chagrin of Coach Jay Johnson.

In the bottom of the 11th inning, Cal’s Robbie Tenerowicz was batting with two outs and two strikes on the board. If the pitch were a strike, it would’ve ended the game. Instead Tenerowicz turned it into the game-tying home run. At a score of 5-5, both teams continued on into the twelfth inning.

The Cats were successful in this inning to get players on base, and at one point got the bases loaded. But a win in the 12th wasn’t in the cards, as Justin Behnke struck out. The Bears didn’t fare any better, and at this point everyone probably just wanted the game to end, but the game went on.

The 13th inning proved to be the turning point for the Wildcats, despite it looking like the Bears had stolen the game them.

With runners on first and third, senior Cal outfielder Brian Celsi came up to bat and showed bunt. The bunt was successful and the player on third came home. It looked like the game was over, but the referee signaled no run. Upon replay, you see that the Cal player had stepped on home plate negating the run, the game continued much to the delight of Wildcats fans everywhere, well, those who were still up watching.

The dugout was in true form, growing tired and weary, they battled heavy-eyes, backing their teammates at the plate. No one could have imagined what these Cats had up their sleeve.  The camera couldn’t get enough of them and neither could ZZ. You have to hand it to them; the team never gave up. The 200% supportive dugout, trying everything they could to will their team to victory from the sidelines.

Here’s a taste of what they dreamed up, and it worked:

In the top of the 13th, with two men on, Arizona’s Ryan Aguilar hit a home run and brought two of his teammates home with him, putting the Cats up by three. That would prove to be all that was need from either team. Cal’s Mitchell Kranson would hit a pop fly to right field, caught for the final out, ending the marathon baseball game.

It seems the Wildcats got their respective hats back, they all were wearing them after the game, that takes coordination.

“The best win of this season and the best regular season win I can ever remember being a part of,” coach Jay Johnson said. “The toughness it took to get through that was incredible. It was a pretty awesome effort by the Wildcats tonight.”

In all, there were 191 pitches from two Arizona Wildcats; starter JC Cloney threw 100 pitches in 7.1 innings, and Bobby Dalbec threw 91 pitches in just 5.2 innings. They racked up eight strikeouts between the two of them. Cloney received a no-decision in the win. In contrast, six of the Cal Bears pitching squad hurled a total 271 pitches including 14 strikeouts. This boded well for Arizona going into game three where they won by one measly run 7-6. But they won and swept the No. 18 ranked Cal Bears.

Bobby Dalbec smacked three hits and brought in four runs. Ryan Aguilar, who hit the game-winning home run in game 2, along with Ryan Houg and Lois Boyd, who drove in a run. In the seventh inning, the Bears scored five runs beating the Wildcats by four runs, 6-1. The Cats answered back with five runs of their own in the eighth inning, and pitcher Alfonso Rivas recorded the win taking down the Bears in the ninth inning 1-2-3.

Next: The Arizona Baseball dugout is the best place to be on Campus

The Wildcats are now 10-8 in the Pac-12 Conference, and 26-14 overall on the season. On a roll, next up are their rivals up North on Tuesday in Tempe in enemy territory. Calling all Wildcats fans who live in Phoenix and surrounding areas: Go to the game and cheer on your Wildcats! BearDown Arizona Baseball, we’ll be cheering for you, beat the Devils!