By
Brian Penso
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Duncan hits 37th career blast
In a weekend in which there was little to celebrate, junior right fielder Shelley Duncan became the silver lining to an otherwise dismal series.
Duncan - the son of St. Louis Cardinals pitching coach Dave Duncan - broke the UA home run record by hitting his 37th shot yesterday.
He surpassed Kenny Corley's previous record of 36.
"Think about all players that have come through Arizona," Duncan said. "Kenny Corley is a great hitter and I used to watch him. He was a gamer. To be in that class is a great honor for me."
UA (5-7) was swept this past weekend by No. 22 Long Beach State 18-11 yesterday, 21-9 Saturday and 6-4 on Friday.
While Duncan finished the series with four home runs and 9 RBI's, his offensive production was not enough to carry the Wildcats to a victory over the Dirtbags.
The baseball team has lost five straight - the longest streak since the Wildcats lost six in a row during the 1999 season.
This season, Arizona has been battling inconsistent offensive production, but this weekend its pitching and defense proved to be the team's Achilles heal.
UA scored 24 runs over the three-game series but allowed the Dirtbags to score a combined 45 runs.
Arizona's starting pitchers, junior Brian Pemble, freshman Chris Goodman and Marc Kaiser pitched a combined 11.2 innings in which they allowed 16 total runs.
The bullpen - which had been a strength for UA so far this season - was tagged for 29 runs in 15.8 innings.
UA head coach Jerry Stitt, though disappointed, said he believes his young pitchers will come around.
"I think the pitchers are doing all right," Stitt said. "They're throwing strikes. Long Beach State didn't hit the ball hard at all. I'm not worried about the pitching staff, but I am worried about making plays behind the pitchers."
Arizona's pitchers did not get much help from its defense - the Wildcats committed 10 errors in the weekend series.
"It's discouraging because we want to win," senior first baseman Ernie Durazo said. "We're scoring runs but having bad breaks. It's no one's fault. It's just the way it's going for us right now."
Durazo said that the team needs to come together in order for them to be successful.
"We have to bear down," Durazo said. "A couple key defensive plays should of made and the outcome would have been a lot different. Pitching had nothing to do with the loss."
Stitt said that the weekend series was good for the Wildcats, who managed to stay close with Long Beach State in two of the three games.
"You learn a lot playing a good team," Stitt said. "They teach you limitations and where to improve. They showed us we are capable of playing with them. We have to learn from this series."
