Arizona Baseball settles for split in their weekend action

TUCSON, AZ – Riding a nine-game winning streak entering the weekend, Arizona Baseball (12-4) has to settle for a split with Wichita State and Air Force. 

Things are certainly picking up in the Desert again, as the Arizona Baseball team continued its 2021 campaign, returning to the friendly confines of Hi Corbett Field to take on Wichita State and Air Force this weekend.

Coming in, winners of nine-straight, the Cats were riding high and rightfully so, especially as the program welcomed limited fans in Thursday night’s game against the Shockers.

Arizona Wildcats

Turning to their ace in Chase Silseth in game one, the Wildcats’ righty had a return to normalcy of sorts as he would have a solid day, pitching seven solid innings, surrendering five hits and three runs (one earned) with six strikeouts. Chase would even pick up the win to improve to 3-0 on the season.

Quinn Flanagan would come on in relief, getting a little roughed up in the limited action pitched, as he surrendered two runs on three hits in one-and-a-third innings.

He would be relieved by Preston Price in the top of the ninth, as Price came in and shut the door of the Shockers, earning his second save of the year.

Offensively, the Wildcats did most of their damage in the third inning, plating five runs to take control of the game. Arizona would plate two more runs in the bottom of the fifth, and even added an insurance run in the bottom of the seventh that then made it 8-3.

While Jacob Berry had a big night, finishing his day 3-4 from the plate with two RBI’s and two runs scored, it was a team effort overall for the Wildcats in their 8-5 win.

Game two would highlight the inconsistencies from Arizona Baseball this weekend.

Turning to Chandler Murphy on Friday evening, it would unfortunately not be his or the Wildcats’ day. Lasting just three-and-two-thirds innings, Murphy would surrender eight runs (four earned) which pretty much set the tone for the rest of the game.

Arizona would bring in three other relief pitchers, but overall it was a sloppy performance as the Wildcats gave up 10 runs on the day with five errors.

Offensively, the Wildcats did make it competitive, plating nine runs, and nearly even pulled off the win, but the Shockers did plate two runs in the seventh that ultimately delivered the 10-9 win to end Arizona’s winning streak.

Vince Vannelle would pick up the loss, his first of the season, as the Wildcats split the two-game series (originally a three-game series) with Wichita State.

Game Three: 

Looking to bounce back in Saturdays’ action, Arizona would welcome Air Force into town to kick-off a short, two-game series with the Falcons.

With Garrett Irvin on the mount for Arizona, the Wildcats would get off to a slow start in this one. Irvin would surrender two runs in the first, followed by another in the fourth the put the Cats at a disadvantage here as Arizona trailed 3-0 early on.

Arizona would finally find their offense in the sixth inning, plating two runs off a triple from Tony Bullard, and a single from Donta’ Williams to make it 3-2.

Unfortunately, that is all the offense the Wildcats would muster in this one as the Falcons responded with two more runs in the ninth to put the final nail in the coffin, delivering the 5-2, opening series win against the Wildcats.

Irvin would pick up the loss as Arizona dropped its second-straight game after previously winning 10-straight.

Game Four:

Needing to bounce back in a big way, Arizona would rely on TJ Nichols as the starter, and would also use three different relief pitchers in this one.

Nichols would be pulled in the fifth after giving up four runs, but it was the strength of the bullpen on Sunday that was the main story.

Turning in a complete effort for the Wildcats, Arizona’s pitching held Air Force to just five runs on nine hits on the day.

Price would pick up the win, hurling three-and-one-third spectacular innings, surrendering one run on one hit, striking four Falcons’ batters in the process.

However, the real story was the offense. Unlike their game against Air Force in game one, the bats came to life for the Wildcats here. Led by numerous different players, the Wildcats combined for 14 runs on 12 hits, even getting a home run from Williams in the eighth inning.

Arizona would eventually go on to win by a score of 14-5 to improve to 12-4 on the year and salvaged what was rather an inconsistent weekend from Arizona Baseball.

As this team continues to progress, they still have a lot of things to improve upon, but the talent is there and it is exciting to see this group in action once again. Arizona will return to the diamond on Friday in Los Angeles, as the team takes on UCLA to kick-off the conference action.