Arizona Baseball drops two games versus No. 3 Stanford

PALO ALTO, CA- Traveling all the way to Northern California, the Arizona Baseball (19-22, 7-14) team took on No. 3 Stanford, losing two of three games.

It’s been a rough season for the Arizona Baseball team so far in 2019, and the tough times continued for the Wildcats as they took on No. 3 Stanford Cardinal.

Hoping to get things back on track from the uncharacteristic loss to Grand Canyon on Tuesday, the challenge was going to be on versus the Cardinal.

Arizona Wildcats

On Friday, it started great! With Stanford’s ace on the mound and junior Randy Labaut pitching for the Cats, who knew we’d be in store for such a great performance!

Early on, Arizona came out strong! Tied 0-0 heading into the second inning, Arizona broke the scoreless tie, when Justin Wylie flied out to right field, scoring Dayton Dooney to make it 1-0.

Two innings later, the Wildcats would extend their lead to 2-0, when Branden Boissiere doubled, scoring Dooney again. Stanford would get a run back in the bottom of the fourth, but luckily, the offensive barrage wouldn’t stop there for Arizona!

Nick Quintana would hit his 30th career home run, when he would send a blast to left center in the top of the fifth inning, that would score score two, and giving the Cats the 4-1 lead.

Stanford would get things close after the seventh inning, cutting Arizona’s lead to just 4-3, however, Arizona would plate two more runs in the eighth to put this thing away for good!

Labaut would pick up the win for the Cats after pitching, six-and-one-third solid innings, surrendering just three runs on five hits. With the win, Labaut would improve to 3-2 on the year!

Arizona would also get relief efforts from Vince Vannelle and Avery Weems, but it was ultimately Quinn Flanagan who would pick up the save in this one, helping to secure Arizona’s 6-3 win!

Wylie would finish the game going 1-2 from the plate, driving in three runs, and Quintana would end up 1-4 with two RBI’s in the game.

Going for the win in game two, Arizona would come out strong, plating two runs in the first inning when an Austin Wells would triple, scoring Matthew Dyer, followed by a Quintana sacrifice ground out, that scored Wells to make it 2-0.

Unfortunately that’s when the sleeping giant would awaken, as Stanford would plate four in the next inning, virtually stealing the lead for good. With Arizona trailing 5-2 heading into the fifth, Stanford would plate five more, followed by another three runs in the sixth inning to make it 11-2.

Arizona would get one back in the seventh inning, but it wasn’t enough, as Stanford cruised to the 13-3 win in game two.

Andrew Nardi would finish the game pitching four-and-a-third innings, surrendering seven runs on six hits.

Freshman Austin Wells would be the bright spot on a rather quiet offensive evening for the Cats, as he finished the day 2-4 from the plate, driving in two runs.

Looking to pick-up the series win in game three, Arizona would turn to Weems to pitch in this one! Early on it was competitive, as the Wildcats once again took the early lead, when a Wells ground out would score Dyer making it 1-0.

However, the lead wouldn’t last long, when Stanford would get one back in the bottom of the first to tie it 1-1. Luckily, it would stay like that for a few innings, until the Cardinal broke this one open.

Tied 1-1 heading into the bottom of the third, Stanford would plate three, followed by another big inning in which the Cardinal plated three more runs to extend their lead to 7-2 after four innings.

Arizona would try and rally in this one, getting it as close as 8-5, but ultimately their attempt was unsuccessful, as Stanford went on to pace themselves to the 13-5  win.

Weems would pick up the loss, falling to 3-5 on the year, and overall Arizona fell to 19-22 (7-14). The Wildcats’ brightest offensive moment came in the sixth inning, when Blake Paugh would homer to left center to score two runs.

With the loss, Arizona has now lost their third straight series, including dropping eight of their last 10 games. Things certainly have been tough in Tucson, but the Cats are still battling, trying to get things turned around.

Arizona will return to action on Tuesday, when they take on New Mexico State, followed by Oregon (23-18, 8-10) this weekend! Hopefully the Cats can get back on track to winning!

At Zona Zealots, I know it’s been a tough year in Tucson, but you gotta support the Cats even through thick and thin! As Always, Bear Down, Arizona!