Arizona baseball extends winning streak to eight sweeping Cincinnati

Arizona won its eighth consecutive game on Sunday with an 11-1 victory over Cincinnati to complete the weekend sweep in its inaugural series in the Big XII. Arizona won 8-3 in the series opener and 14-2 on Saturday night to set up the series sweep over Cincinnati. Arizona improved to 15-4 overall and Cincinnati is now 11-9.

After falling behind Cincinnati 3-0 in the series open, Arizona scored all eight of its runs in the sixth inning to earn the win. Tommy Splaine and Brendan Summerhill had RBI singles and added another on a throwing error before Mason White hit a grand slam to break the game open. The run scored on the throwing error was on Summerhill's single.

Casey Hintz improved to 4-0 with the win in relief and Garrett Hicks pitched the final three innings with two walks and four strikeouts to earn his first save. Summerhill, White and Mathis Meurant each had two hits for Arizona in the win. Kerrington Cross and Christian Mitchelle each had two hits for Cincinnati.

Arizona took command early on Saturday with four runs in the bottom of the first inning and eight in the second to basically put Cincinnati away on their way to a 14-2 win. Cincinnati allowed five unearned runs. Summerhill had four hits in five at-bats with three runs scored and three RBIs on Saturday.

Splaine and White also drove in three runs in the win on Saturday as five Wildcats scored at least two runs. Owen Kramkowski pitched five innings, allowing one unearned run with two walks and seven strikeouts to improve to 3-1. Four Arizona relievers each pitched an inning and allowed only one combined run to help Arizona earn the win.

Arizona scored one run in the first, three in third and fifth and four in the sixth to earn the seven-inning run-rule victory over Cincinnati on Sunday. Summerhill led a potent top-of-the-Arizona lineup with three hits, four runs scored and an RBI. The top five batters in the Arizona lineup had 11 hits in 17 at-bats with nine runs scored and nine RBIs.

Freshman Smith Bailey pitched five innings, allowing two hits with five walks and five strikeouts to earn his first win. Bailey, Eric Orloff and Julian Tonghini held Cincinnati to three hits and one earned run on Sunday. Arizona hosts Kansas on Tuesday before playing a three-game series at West Virginia next weekend.