Arizona Baseball takes game two against Nevada

TUCSON, AZ – Despite a late rally by the Wolf Pack, Arizona Baseball (31-13, 13-8) was able to hang tough late, taking game two from Nevada (21-19, 13-8).  

Entering this game riding a three-game winning streak including a game one win over Nevada, Arizona Baseball brought the bats out again, plating seven runs on 12 hits as they hung tough late to beat Nevada for the second-straight night, this time by a 7-6 final.

Offensively, Arizona was led by the play of Mac Bingham and Garen Caulfield who went a combined 3-7 from the plate, accounting for four of the Wildcats’ five RBIs. Mac would also hit a two-run home run in the second inning.

Luckily the Wildcats’ stayed hot at the dish in this one, as Arizona’s pitching was a little shaky on Friday evening. Despite surrendering four runs early on, the Wildcats held the Wolf Pack for a while until Nevada made things a little too close for comfort late in the game as they plated two runs in the ninth.

Despite leading 7-4 entering the ninth inning, Arizona Baseball was able to hold on late as the Wolf Pack plated two more runs.

Arizona battled in game one against Nevada, using some timely late hitting to come away with the  6-5 win. And entering game two with TJ Nichols on the mound, the Wildcats looked for another strong result.

Unfortunately, Arizona would fall behind 3-0 early once again as Nevada plated all three of those runs in the second inning. Luckily for us, the Wildcats wouldn’t go quietly, rallying quickly to tie Nevada in the following inning.

Mac Bingham would finally put Arizona on the board in the second inning, when he turned on a 1-2 pitch that sailed to left field, bringing in Tony Bullard. Just a few batters later, Garen Caufield came in, reaching base on a fielding error by Nevada that scored Noah Turley to tie it at 3-3.

Nevada would get a run back in the fourth when the Wolf Pack’s Ryan Jackson would hit into a double-play that scored a runner, making 4-3.

Ironically, just a few innings later, Arizona would get that run back in the sixth inning in a similar fashion. Putting a few men on base, Caufield would hit into a double-play that scored Turley again, making it 4-4.

Still tied late, the Wildcats would bust this game open in eighth when they exploded for three runs.  Thanks to some timely hitting, Caufield would be set up big again, this time taking a 1-1 fastball that skirted out to left field, scoring two runs.

Daniel Susac would fly out just a few batters later, scoring Tyler Casagrande who entered the game as a pinch hitter. The sacrifice fly from Susac made it 7-4 Cats!

Granted, Nevada would get two runs in the ninth, but luckily, Arizona’s Trevor Long was able to come up big late, shutting down Nevada’s rally to come away with the 7-6 win.

Long would earn yet another win, improving to 5-0 on the year; however, this was truly a team effort here. Nichols got the start, pitching seven respectable innings as he surrendered four runs on seven hits with six strikeouts.

He would be replaced by Chris Barraza and Quinn Flanagan as the two combined for just two-thirds of an inning pitched before Long came in to close things down late.

Where does Arizona Baseball go from here?

With the win, Arizona improves to 31-13 (13-8) on the year and will return to action on Saturday afternoon when they resume action in game three of this four-game series against Nevada at Hi Corbett Field. The first pitch is set for 1:00 PM. The Wildcats will close out the series on Sunday afternoon, before returning to action on Tuesday evening against Grand Canyon at home.