By
Brian Penso
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Arizona defense should improve before conference play
The Arizona baseball team - in the midst of a three-game winning streak - will try to continue its winning ways this weekend when they play host to Texas A&M for a three-game series at Sancet Field. The first starts today at 3 p.m.
The Aggies lead the all-time series, but the Wildcats will attempt to even the score this weekend with its young pitching staff. The Aggies are 18-16-1 against Arizona all-time.
The Wildcats (8-7, overall) will once again send three freshmen to the mound against A&M (3-1).
This marks the second straight series in which UA has gone with the all- freshman rotation.
"They are doing a great job for us," senior first baseman Ernie Durazo said. "Everyone I know keeps telling me that we need to be worried about our pitching. All I can say is that the team has confidence in them and we all believe they can all get the job done."
Freshman pitcher Marc Kaiser(2-1, 4.98) will get the nod from UA head coach Jerry Stitt for the series opener.
Kaiser is coming off his best outing of the season in which he pitched a career high of seven innings.
"All of our young pitchers have progressed nicely so far this season," UA pitching coach Bill Kinneberg said. "They pitched real well for us last weekend and hopefully as they get more innings and experience they will continue to improve."
Joining Kaiser in this weekend's rotation are freshmen pitchers Sean Rierson and Chris Goodman, who will start tomorrow and Sunday, respectively.
Kinneberg said he realizes that not many pitchers go the full nine innings in college baseball and will look to juniors Brian Pemble and David Brochman to see a lot of action out of the bullpen.
"We need 10 guys to be ready to pitch in a three-game series," Kinneberg said. "Pemble and Brochman are real important parts of our pitching staff. They push our starters a lot and they have done good for us in relief work."
Third-base coach Victor Solis said the Wildcats will need to play well defensively to compete with the Aggies.
"We need to play tighter defense," Solis said. "It is real important for us to play solid defense. If we play good defense, we'll have a good chance of winning because we will score runs."
With Pacific 10 Conference play only a few weeks away, Durazo realizes that the Wildcats need to continue to improve in order to be successful in conference play.
"We have to get consistent play all of the time," Durazo said. "We can't play just one good game.
"We can't just turn it on when we need to, but that is the sign of our youth. We just need to continue to play hard on each and every play."
