TUCSON, AZ – It was a close battle, but No. 20 Arizona Baseball (22-10, 10-5) hung on to beat New Mexico State (12-8, 4-11) by a 4-2 final.
No. 20 Arizona Baseball blew a 2-0 lead late in the game, but luckily, the Wildcats were able to regain the lead in the eighth inning, eventually escaping with the 4-2 win over New Mexico State in this mid-week tilt.
Chase Davis and Garen Caulfield went just a combined 2-7 from the plate; however, their two hits were big ones as both Wildcats accounted for all four of the Wildcats’ runs.
And despite the offense being a little lackluster for the Wildcats in this one, Arizona’s pitching would come up big, holding the Aggies to just two runs on five hits while striking out 13. Arizona would use five different pitchers in the game.
However, the bigger story here was the late rally from the Cats as Arizona was able to get back in the win column, and hopefully regain their confidence.
Despite blowing their 2-0 lead, the Wildcats were able to capitalize on some late, timely hits, as Arizona Baseball escaped with the win.
Fresh off of a shocking three-game series loss to Washington State in Tucson, Arizona looked to get back on track against New Mexico State in their mid-week tilt.
Unfortunately for Arizona, the bats were still a bit cold, and despite jumping out to an early 2-0 after the first inning, the bats went quiet as the Cats struggled to find any sort of offensive rhythm.
Leading 2-0 entering the eighth, New Mexico State would make things interesting when a few timely hits by the Aggies would tie things at 2-2 before Trevor Long would come on in relief.
With a runner on third and no outs, Long would strike out three straight NMSU batters, successfully holding the Aggies at bay to give the Wildcats a chance in this one.
In the very next at-bat, Arizona would deliver! With the bases loaded and just two outs in the eighth, Caulfield would turn on a 2-0 pitch that he singled to center field, scoring Noah Turley and Chase Davis to make it 4-2.
Arizona would not plate any more runs in this one, but luckily Long came back out in the top of the ninth, sitting down New Mexico State’s batters to secure the 4-2 win and picking up his second victory to improve to 2-0 on the year.
Where does Arizona Baseball go from here?
With the win, Arizona improves to 23-10 (10-5) on the year and will return to action on Thursday when they open up with a three-game series against Utah in Salt Lake City. The Wildcats will then follow that up with a quick two-game series against Creighton in Omaha next week.