Late inning drama helps Arizona Baseball prevail in epic win

PHOENIX, AZ- Arizona Baseball (17-14, 5-7) rallies late to become victorious in a wild showdown versus the GCU Lopes (17-15, 5-4) on Tuesday evening.

Who says college baseball can’t have an exciting mid-week game? Well, if you were tuning in or made the journey up to Phoenix, you probably saw a wild one with the Arizona Baseball team.

Fresh off their first conference sweep of the season, the Wildcats were looking to carry their momentum from this past weekend to take on GCU on Tuesday evening.

Arizona Wildcats

Sophomore Gil Luna got the start for the Cats, and early on it looked like it was going to be a good one for Arizona.

The Wildcats began the game, picking up right where they left off offensively, striking early. Freshman infielder Dayton Dooley got things going for the Cats, when he doubled down the right field line with two outs to bring in two, Wildcat base runners, making it 2-0 Cats after the first inning.

Then in the next inning, it was freshman outfielder Ryan Holgate, who blasted a two-out solo shot to right-center field to extend Arizona’s lead to 3-0.

Arizona was then fortunate in the third inning, when a walk surrendered by the Lopes extended the Wildcats’ lead to 4-0.

After GCU was able to get one run back in the bottom of the third, Arizona responded with a big inning of their own. First it was Donta Williams hitting a three-run homer, followed by ANOTHER Nick Quintana home run to make it 8-1.

That’s when things would get a little wonky for the Cats. GCU would score five-runs in the bottom of the fourth to shrink Arizona’s lead to 8-6, then another big inning by the Lopes put them out front 10-8.

Making matters worse, GCU would add three more runs in the seventh to extend their lead to 13-8.

With the game seemingly out of hand, that’s when the Cats would get to work in this one to climb back in this one!

First it was Holgate singling to begin the eighth inning, followed by a Williams walk to put two men on with no outs! A Matthew Dyer double would bring in Holgate from second, cutting the lead to just 13-9, GCU.

Still without any outs, a ground out by Austin Wells and single by Quintana would score two more runs making it 13-11 at that point!

Then, a few timely hits by the Cats would set Arizona up to score two more runs on back-to-back walks surrendered by the Lopes to tie the game at 13-13!

A phenomenal defensive inning in the bottom of the eighth would keep GCU’s offense at bay, setting up for another big inning for the Cats in the ninth.

Thanks to a few timely breakdowns by the Lopes, that would set-up Cameron Cannon, who would double to center field, scoring Quintana and giving Arizona the lead at 14-13!

Avery Weems would close at the game at pitcher for the Cats, completely shutting the door on GCU’s hopes for a comeback!

The senior would pick up the win in this one, improving to 3-3 on the year!

With the victory, the Wildcats improve to 17-14 (5-7) on the season, and will get a little break in action, until their return to the diamond on Friday to take on Pac-12 foe, the Cal Bears at home.

At Zona Zealots, we’re happy to see the Cats still come away victorious and hopefully they can continue to build of this momentum! Bear Down, Arizona!