MATT HEISTAND/Arizona Daily Wildcat Freshman Pat Reilly attempts a sliding catch earlier this season against Arizona State at Sancet Field. Reilly set a new NCAA record for putouts with 19 against Stanford Friday at home.

Arizona freshman first baseman Pat Reilly set a new NCAA record with 29 putouts in Friday's 18-inning marathon game against Stanford.

The previous record of 26 was set in 1973.

Despite seven Wildcat errors on the night, Reilly recorded the record-breaking putout in the 18th inning.

"I thought it was pretty cool that I'm in the record book for something," Reilly said. "I was thinking throughout the game we were getting a lot of ground-ball outs."

Arizona (22-14 overall, 3-6 Pacific 10 Conference) lost the game 5-4 after it tied up the score in the 12th and 15th innings. The game time of 5 hours, 19 minutes, was a new school record but fell one inning short of the game length record.

Reilly redshirted last year as a freshman. Primarily an outfielder, he started taking grounders at first to become more versatile.

This season, Reilly, who is batting .326, started the season on the bench but later broke into the lineup playing primarily at first. However, he has also seen time in right field.

"It's difficult switching (positions) because you see balls off of the bat differently," he said. "It's harder to prepare because you don't know where you're going to be."

Reilly started the first two games of the Stanford series at first and Sunday's finale in right.

Head coach Andy Lopez said Reilly is being rewarded for his patience and hard work.

"He did it the right way. He listened to his parents and his high school coaches. Someone told him, "If you're not playing, you don't complain; you just work real hard, wait for the chance; and, when you get it, you take advantage of it,"' Lopez said.

Right fielder Jeff Van Houten missed all of last weekend's series with a sore wrist that he injured at the end of a swing on March 22 against Arizona State.

He finished the rest of the ASU series and played through the pain in all three games against Oregon State on March 28-30.

"I think (the wrist) is hyperextended from trying to use too much hands on my swing," Van Houten said.

Senior Justyn St. Clair played right field in the first two games of the Stanford series.

Today Van Houten will undergo a MRI on the wrist.

"The doctor said it might be fractured, but he really doesn't know. I could be out until the end of the week," he said.

Van Houten did not take batting practice yesterday but did practice with the team.

The road has not been kind to Arizona this season, as the team has won two out of 10 games. The Wildcats have posted a .194 team batting average in that span with a 4.70 ERA.

After a 4-1 win against Texas A&M Corpus Christi on Feb. 13, UA went on to lose six straight to Texas A&M and Long Beach State before winning the series opener against OSU in Corvallis, Ore.

"It's a puzzling thing for me right now - we're obviously very young," Lopez said.

Inexperience may be the problem. Of the 31-man roster, there are 11 players each from the freshman and sophomore classes, but a lack of game experience also affects some of the older players.

Senior catcher Chris Cunningham, who won the starting job outright from junior Ken Riley, had only 23 at-bats last season.

Traveling is completely different for new collegiate athletes. Instead of familiar bus rides to other high schools, they now must take flights to different states that may require a connecting flight.

"Being on the road is a different environment, a different world. Everything is different, from the way you eat to how you sleep," Lopez said.