OMAHA, Neb. - The Arizona baseball team has played out of tough situations for the last three months, but the Wildcats found a spot they couldn't get out of in the form of Georgia pitching.
Arizona was eliminated for the College World Series yesterday at Rosenblatt Stadium with a 3-1 loss to Georgia in front of an estimated crowd of 18,000.
"We're sad to leave," head coach Andy Lopez said. "(Georgia) pitched the lights out. That about says it all."
The Bulldogs got a terrific outing by starter Michael Hyle, who lasted six innings and allowed just one run on six hits before giving way to Georgia closer Will Startup. Startup entered in the seventh inning and earned his 12th save of the year and his second against Arizona in this year's College World Series.
"They outpitched us today," said Arizona starter Kevin Guyette, who had an equally impressive performance in the loss for the Wildcats.
Guyette lasted 6.1 innings, giving up two earned runs in his team-tying record of 22 starts in a season.
Arizona's only run came in the seventh trailing 2-0 when junior catcher Richard Mercado lead off with a walk, which prompted Georgia head coach David Perno to bring in Startup for Hyle. Startup got designated hitter Nick Hundley to bunt it back to the pitcher and forced out Mercado at second, but on a throw to first for the double play, Georgia shortstop Justin Holmes threw the ball into the dugout to allow Hundley to advance to second. Hundley was promptly driven in on a double by junior secondbaseman John Hardy. Hardy was then moved to third on a sac fly, but the inning ended after a ground out to first base, and 2-1 was as close as the Wildcats would get.
The Wildcats also had opportunities to score in the second, third and four innings, but could never muster much offense against the Georgia pitching.
"We missed opportunities to score and it hurt us, but that's what happens when you play good teams," Lopez said. "There were four big plays in the game, and we were zero for four in those plays."
In all, Arizona was 2-9 with runners in scoring position, including four strike outs, but both players and coaches said a lot of credit must go to the Georgia pitchers.
"(Hyle) was mixing up his pitches very well and coming with off-speed stuff early," said Arizona catcher Richard Mercado.
The Wildcats got some good pitching of their own, but to no avail.
Guyette worked out of tough spots in the second, fourth and fifth innings.
Georgia scored its first two runs in the third with a one-out RBI single by Marshall Szabo, who finished the game just a homer away from the cycle, and a two-out RBI single by Joey Side.
The Bulldogs added another run in the eighth to close out scoring.
Arizona finished its season with a-fifth place national finish and was the last Pacific-10 Conference team in the field.