Wildcats happy to be home

Ian Mayer Arizona Daily Wildcat Junior center fielder Troy Gingrich (2) slides into home during a game against Grand Canyon at Sancet Field. Gingrich went 7 for 17 with five RBI, six runs and two doubles over the weekend in Arizona's sweep of Washington State.

The long trip and the game cancellation did not ruin the Wildcats' (29-16 overall, 10-8 Pacific 10 Conference) spirits, as they were able to come away with a three game sweep of the Cougars (17-19, 1-11) by scores of 6-3 and 16-11 Saturday and 13-9 Sunday.

"Pullman is a beautiful place, but not easy to get to or back from," UA head coach Jerry Stitt said.

The Wildcats had to jump on a bus to the airport immediately following their victory Sunday and got back to Tucson at 5 a.m. yesterday.

"It was 13 hours of driving and flying without showering (after Sunday's game)," Stitt said.

Gingrich, Duncan have "huge weekend"

Junior center fielder Troy Gingrich and freshman right fielder Shelley Duncan combined for 12 hits, 11 runs, 11 RBI, three doubles and two home runs over the course of the weekend.

With the Wildcats scoring 35 runs in the three games, Gingrich and Duncan were part of 22 of them in some sort of fashion.

Pac-10 Standings Team Conf. Overall Stanford 12-3 27-11 Southern Cal 12-3 26-18 Washington 7-5 24-12 Arizona 10-8 29-16 Arizona State 8-7 32-15 UCLA 5-7 21-23 California 6-9 18-26 Oregon State 2-10 13-28 Washington S. 1-11 17-19

Gingrich went 7 for 17 with five RBI, six runs and two doubles while Duncan provided the power with two home runs on 5 for 14 hitting with six RBI, five runs and a double.

"Their numbers were just huge," Stitt said. "Troy in my mind should be player of the week. I don't think he'll get nominated, but he deserves it."

Pearce throws a gem

Junior starting pitcher Josh Pearce knew about Washington State before this series because he pitched against them in the Pac-10 North Division for the past two seasons when he was a starter for Portland State.

His knowledge of the Cougars helped, but so did his curveball, which was working to perfection Saturday as he threw a complete game, giving up only three runs on five hits, striking out six and walking only three.

"Josh just pitched a gem," Stitt said. "The guys also played really well. We scored enough and hit the ball hard enough to win, but we also didn't make any errors."

Pearce has won his last two decisions against the Cougars dating back to his days at Portland State.

Regionals closing in

The Wildcats are currently riding a seven game conference winning streak, and with the knowledge of the NCAA Tournament on the horizon, their timing is perfect.

With two more conference series left to play, both on the road at California and Arizona State and with one non-conference home series remaining against Southern Utah, the Wildcats are in good shape to make the field of 64 for the first time since 1993 when Jerry Kindall was the head coach.

"If we do well against Southern Utah and Cal, it is going to mean a lot of us being able to play in late May," Stitt said. "We don't try to look ahead, we just try to get better each day. When we were losing, we were still getting better and recently we have had a chance to play teams below us in the standings and you have to beat those teams. We had been playing good, but in the past few weeks we have been playing really good."

Dan Rosen can be reached at Dan.Rosen@wildcat.arizona.edu.