Oral Roberts surprises Wildcats

Arizona Daily Wildcat UA infielder Omar Moraga attempts to slide back to first base. The Wildcats lost to Oral Roberts, 5-3 yesterday at Sancet Field.

The Golden Bears (5-8) were paced by freshman right-handed pitcher Wes Freeman (1-0), who was credited with the win after pitching five innings. He allowed two runs, three hits and five walks. Senior left-hander Brian Stensler was credited with his first save of the year. Golden Bear pitching allowed a total of five hits.

The Wildcats had a three-game winning streak snapped and are currently 12-9 overall. Sophomore left-hander James Johnson (2-3) took the loss for Arizona, going 4 2/3 innings, allowing four runs, three hits and four walks. He had no strike-outs.

"We got flat-out out-played today," UA head coach Jerry Stitt said. "We got out-pitched, out-played, out-defended, out-everything."

The key to the game came in the fifth when junior second baseman Ron Soratos hit a two-out, three run double, putting Oral Roberts up 4-0.

Arizona got two runs in the sixth and added another in the ninth before the rally was ended when junior pinch-hitter Jason Hendricks lined out to the shortstop. Pinch-runner Andre Dawson was then caught off first, completing the double play.

Despite playing six games over six days, the Wildcats were not offering up any false reasons for yersteday's outcome.

"There are no excuses," Stitt said. "Any excuse we might use would be a lame excuse. There are no excuses for that (their play), except that they just didn't come ready to play."

Friday and Saturday was a different story for the Wildcats.

On Saturday, junior centerfielder Diego Rico paced the Wildcats in their 12-3 stomping of Oral Roberts in the series opener. Rico reached base in each of his five at-bats, collecting two hits and three walks, an RBI and three runs scored. Rico also added a stolen base, his 11th on the year.

UA starting pitcher Darrell Hussman was cruising along until a line-drive off his ankle in the sixth forced him to leave the game. Sophomore Ryan Moskau came in for Hussman, pitching four innings of shutout ball to pick up the win. X-rays came up negative on Hussman's ankle. Golden Bear starter Derek Dixon took the loss.

Junior shortstop Jake Thrower also had a big day, going 3 of 5 with a pair of runs scored and a pair of RBI.

On Friday, the Wildcats pulled off a two-game series sweep of Southern Utah in dramatic fashion, scoring three runs with two-outs in the bottom of the eighth to defeat the Thunderbirds, 3-2.

With runners on third and first, Rico and junior second baseman Erik Mattern hit back-to-back run-scoring singles. With Rico on third, Mattern got caught in a rundown between first and second, and was able to buy enough time for Rico to score from third before getting tagged out.

Sophomore left-hander Scott Wood (1-0) picked up the win for the Wildcats, while Moskau earned his third save in as many tries.