WILL SEBERGER/Arizona Daily Wildcat UA freshman Jason Donald returns to first base to beat a pick-off attempt early in the team's 6-5 loss to UC Irvine Saturday.

Anteaters, Wildcats tie after 10 innings

Before the Anteaters completed a three-game sweep of the Arizona baseball team, they mercifully decided to take their ball and go home.

The Wildcats avoided a sweep at home yesterday to UC Irvine with an 8-8 tie. The Anteaters and Wildcats agreed to end the contest after 10 innings because Irvine had to catch a flight back to California.

The Wildcats' (5-3-1) last tie came in 1995 when they played Texas A&M to a 3-3 game in College Station, Texas.

"I don't think we're playing well," said UA head coach Andy Lopez. "We're not getting timely hitting and we're not making the quality pitch."

The Wildcats dropped the first two games to Irvine, losing 6-5 Saturday and 3-1 Friday.

"There's not much you can say, Irvine just outplayed us," said freshman shortstop Jason Donald. "We didn't deserve to win this weekend."

Lopez shouldered much of the blame for Arizona's poor series.

"We've got to do a much better job of coaching," Lopez said. "We made a lot of bad decisions and a lot of mistakes."

Yesterday, three Arizona pitchers combined to give up five runs on two hits to the Anteaters in the seventh inning, but the Wildcats responded with three runs of their own to tie the game at 8-8. Neither team could score any runs in the game's final three innings.

Donald tied a team record with six hits in yesterday's tie. He hit his team-leading fifth home run and was only a triple away from the cycle.

However, all was not perfect for Donald.

With one out in the bottom of the tenth, Donald lined a base hit into left-center field, but was thrown out trying to stretch it into a double.

"I was just trying to get into scoring position with one out," Donald said. "I wanted to make something happen, but it just didn't happen."

After Donald was thrown out, junior first baseman Pat Reilly doubled, but freshman Jordan Brown flied out to end the game.

For the eighth time in nine games, Arizona started the contest by giving up a run in the first inning.

Irvine scored two runs in the first after a called balk on starting pitcher Luis Cortez, followed by a home run by Anteater designated hitter R.J. Brown.

The Anteaters pushed their lead to 3-0 in the fifth, but the Wildcats responded in their half of the inning. Sophomore centerfielder Derek Decater began the inning when he reached first base on an error, and was moved to third on a double by junior catcher Richard Mercado.

Both were plated by senior third baseman Moises Duran when he hit a double. But Arizona was unable to score Duran from second with no one out.

The Wildcats got their first and only lead of the weekend with three more runs in the sixth, but Irvine regained the lead with its five-run seventh.

On Saturday, Arizona left the tying run on third in the bottom of the ninth, falling 6-5.

The Wildcats entered their half of the ninth trailing 6-3, but following a solo home run by Donald and a run-scoring groundout by freshman designated hitter D.J. Lewis, Arizona pulled within a run.

Sophomore Kevin Guyette got the loss for Arizona after going 2 2/3 innings and allowing six runs.

A bright note for Arizona was the 6 1/3 innings of scoreless relief by sophomore Pat Lawler.

Irvine got an equally impressive pitching performance out of its starter Friday. Brett Smith held Arizona to one run on six hits in eight innings of work and got the 3-1 victory for the Anteaters.

Junior Koley Kolberg went the entire game for the Wildcats, giving up just three runs on ten hits in the loss.

Lopez said the only positive from the weekend is that it's still early in the year.

"Thank God it's the beginning (of the season) and not the end," he said. "We will get better."