UA baseball battles the Dutch, Part II

The young University of Arizona baseball team plays plenty of intrasquad games, but they also like to play competition outside of themselves in the fall.

So the Wildcats will again take on the Dutch National Team at Frank Sancet Field tonight at 7.

They defeated the Dutch 11-7 last Saturday with help from the bats of sophomore third baseman Erik Torres and freshman designated hitter Ben Diggins, who both homered in the game.

"We're such a young team and these games help us get a feel for each other as we learn to work as a team," Diggins said.

Arizona looks at these games as fine-tuners for the upcoming spring season, which opens against St. Johns in January.

"We look for game experience because we don't want to go into the regular season having jitters and being inexperienced," freshman right fielder Shelly Duncan said. "We need the competitiveness."

When the Dutch take the field against the Wildcats, competitiveness is exactly what head coach Jerry Stitt is looking for in his young and inexperienced group of ballplayers.

"We play the outside competition in the fall to give us a different look," he said. "Any type of competition is great, but outside competition puts a little more on the line. They do things differently and we can learn from them."

Stitt said that Arizona probably won't make any significant changes from last weekend in the lineup for tonight's game. He did say that sophomore Brad Fendley may see some playing time at first base in place of sophomore Josh France.

"We played those two games last week and made strides. We learned a few new things," Stitt said. "So, the lineup will be about the same as last Saturday."

Diggins, who pitched three innings last Saturday while only giving up one run, will see the same amount of time on the mound tonight, but he said he will be trying to mix up his repertoire just a bit.

"Coach has worked a lot on off-speed pitches with me," he said. "I might mix those in because they can make the adjustment with my fastball."

Diggins and Duncan, who are both freshmen, said that while they like playing these games in the fall, the competition is not really all that impressive.

"They didn't impress me, but they are a good, solid team," Duncan said. "They beat Team USA and I was expecting a massacre, but it didn't happen."

Dan Rosen can be reached via e-mail at Dan.Rosen@wildcat.arizona.edu.