Arizona Baseball gets Season Opening Sweep in Tucson

Fresh off their miraculous run in 2016, the Arizona Baseball team continues their winning ways, sweeping visiting Eastern Kentucky in a four-game series.

The 2017 season started off with a bang for the Arizona Baseball team, earning their first sweep of the season, and coming in a four-game series nonetheless. Arizona Baseball is now ranked No. 12 in NCAA by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association.

Losing star players like Bobby Dalbec, Nathan Bannister, Cody Ramer and Zach Gibbons among many others, the Wildcats seemingly haven’t skipped a beat.

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Jay Johnson enters in year two as head coach at Arizona, and has assembled quite the impressive squad, or so are early indications after just their first series sweep.

Arizona opened their season with a resounding 6-0 win on Friday evening. Senior JC Cloney, who threw a shutout lasts season, took to the mound, delivering a gem. He pitched seven scoreless innings and surrendered just one hit, striking out six batters.

Newcomers Nick Quintana, Mitchell Morimoto, and Cal Stevenson went a combined four-for-nine, batting in a run, and scoring four of Arizona’s six runs.

Saturday didn’t start quite the way the Wildcats had wanted as pitchers Tylor Megill and Cody Deason gave up eight of the nine early runs scored by the Colonels.

Trailing 9-0 heading into the bottom of the third, Arizona went to work scoring five runs and cutting EKU’s lead down to four runs.

However, the following inning, the Colonels would respond adding on three more runs and extending their lead to 12-5 over the Wildcats.

Still, the Wildcats would not go away. Over the course of the game, Arizona would chip away at the lead and eventually would take the lead for good after a double by sophomore Cesar Salazar that would score JJ Matijevic from second base in the seventh inning.

The Cats would tack on a few more runs, before securing the wild win by a 16-13 final. Quintana and Matijevic would combine for eight hits in 12 at-bats knocking in ten of the Wildcats 16 runs, scoring five runs combined.

On Sunday, the offense continued, as Arizona seemingly had big hit after big hit. Junior Rio Gomez took to the mound, pitching five solid innings, surrendering just one earned run on three hits ultimately picking up the victory.

The Wildcats would open with an offensive barrage, scoring five runs in the first inning. Matijevic would hit a monstrous home run in the second, extending Arizona’s lead to 7-0.

Arizona would tack on 11 more runs over the course of the next three innings, en route to their resounding 18-4 win on Sunday.

In this series finale on Monday, the hot bats continued for the Wildcats. Like Saturday, Arizona would need a bit of a comeback. Trailing 6-2 early, the Wildcats would respond, bringing across four runs in the bottom of the fifth, tying the game at 6-6.

Subsequently, in the next inning, the Colonels would add two more runs taking the lead again at 8-6. The Wildcats would seemingly have no answer, going scoreless in their next three frames, before scoring three in the bottom of the ninth in walk-off fashion, winning 9-8.

Sophomore Alfonso Rivas would start his day on the mound but would be pulled after an inning and two-thirds of work. The Wildcats would use three different pitchers in relief, with junior Cameron Ming getting the victory.

Offensively, junior Jared Oliva, Matijevic, and Rivas would lead Arizona, smacking a combined six hits in 12 at-bats, with six RBI’s and four runs scored.

With the win today, Arizona sweeps the opening four-game series against Eastern Kentucky, and won’t return to action until Thursday, when they take on McNeese State in another four-game series at Hi-Corbett Field.

The 49 runs scored this weekend, are also the most scored by Arizona in the first four games of the season since 2005.

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What a great weekend the Baseball team had! Just as we had said, this should be a fun team to watch, and we’re excited to see what the rest of 2017 has in store! Bear Down, Arizona!