Arizona baseball earns four-game weekend sweep of Pepperdine

Arizona finished off Pepperdine in a four game weekend sweep in Tucson with a win on Sunday.
May 25, 2022; Scottsdale, Arizona, USA; Arizona Wildcats Garen Caulfield (1) hits a two-run home run against the Oregon Ducks in the second inning during the Pac-12 Baseball Tournament at Scottsdale Stadium.

Ncaa Baseball Arizona At Oregon
May 25, 2022; Scottsdale, Arizona, USA; Arizona Wildcats Garen Caulfield (1) hits a two-run home run against the Oregon Ducks in the second inning during the Pac-12 Baseball Tournament at Scottsdale Stadium. Ncaa Baseball Arizona At Oregon | Rob Schumacher/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK

Arizona outscored Pepperdine 36-8 in earning a four-game sweep this weekend. The Wildcats won the final game of the series 5-3 on Sunday. Arizona opened the series with a 7-2 win on Thursday night, won 3-1 on Friday night and 21-2 on Saturday to set up the sweep on Sunday.

Pepperdine took a 1-0 lead in the first inning and extended it to 3-0 in the top of the sixth before Arizona rallied. An Adonys Guzman sacrifice fly cut the Pepperdine lead to 3-1 after six innings. Garen Caulfield had a three-run triple in the seventh inning to put Arizona in front and Maddox Mihalakis drove him in with a sacrifice fly.

Freshman starter Smith Bailey continued to pitch well for Arizona. Bailey went 5.1 innings allowing seven hits, three runs, three earned with three walks and six strikeouts. Three Arizona relievers pitched the final 3.1 innings allowing three hits and no runs to shut down Pepperdine and get the win.

Garrett Hicks improved to 3-0 in getting the win and Tony Pluta earned his second save as Arizona won for the seventh time in the last eight games. Matt Queen dropped to 1-2 allowing the triple to Caulfield and walking one batter for Pepperdine. Andrew Savage had two hits in four at-bats with two RBIs for Pepperdine.

Brendan Summerhill and Aaron Walton at the top of the order and Guzman each had three hits in the series opener to lead Arizona to the victory on Thursday night. Summerhill and Walton combined to go 6-9 with four runs scored and the former had three RBIs in game one.

Arizona used six pitchers on Thursday night with Carson Johnson throwing two hitless innings for the win. Jordan Cole started and pitched four innings, allowing five runs, four earned for Pepperdine in taking the loss. Arizona held Pepperdine to six hits and no walks with five strikeouts.

Collin McKinney pitched six innings, allowing three hits and one run with two walks and seven strikeouts on Friday night. Arizona and Pepperdine traded sixth inning runs before the Wildcats plated two in the bottom of the eighth for the win on Friday. Casey Hintz improved to 3-0 in relief of McKinney on Friday.

The 21 runs in game three were the most for Arizona this season and the fifth time the Wildcats scored at least 10 runs this season. Arizona scored three runs in the first and sixth in the second to bury Pepperdine early. Arizona added three runs in the fourth, one in the sixth and five in the seventh for the dominant win.

Six different Arizona batters had a multiple hit game. Shortstop Mason White had five hits in six at-bats with four runs scored and four RBIs. Arizona scored the 21 runs without a HR. Owen Kramkowski improved to 2-1 without allowing an earned run in 5.2 innings for the win on Saturday.

Pepperdine scored its only two runs in the sixth inning on Saturday night when Arizona already led 13-0. Four Arizona pitchers shutdown Pepperdine in relief of Kramkowski, allowing only one hit and no runs with eight strikeouts over the final 3.1 innings. Arizona hosts Arizona State and Cincinnati next weekend in its first Big 12 series.