Cats down No. 8 Titans, up early record to 5-1
By the time Arizona baseball head coach Andy Lopez wakes up this morning, he might appreciate what his team accomplished over the weekend.
Though the UA lost its first game of the year 12-10 in a seesaw game to No. 8 Cal State Fullerton at Sancet Stadium yesterday, the team won the weekend series.
"We should have (won) three," Lopez said. "I'm really disappointed we didn't get the sweep."
Wildcat relief pitchers gave up 10 runs in the final five innings, and the team was unable to overtake the Titans for the weekend sweep.
Arizona won the first two games of the series Friday and Saturday.
"It was a good weekend, but it had the opportunity to be a great weekend," Lopez said. "I'm happy with two out of three."
Throughout most of yesterday's game, the Wildcats and Titans battled back and forth, but Fullerton got the best of Arizona when it put four runs on the board in the eighth inning.
Combined, the Wildcats and Titans scored 19 runs in the last five innings.
"We battled back and forth, (but) we just couldn't get it done," sophomore outfielder Brad Boyer said. "That's real frustrating. We need to be able to put them away."
Arizona may have had its best chance of breaking the game open in the first inning.
Boyer led off the inning with a solo home run to give the Wildcats a 1-0 lead. The next three Arizona hitters reached base with no outs, but the team could only muster one more run: an RBI single by senior infielder Moises Duran.
"We had our chances," Boyer said. "We just made a couple mistakes and they capitalized on that."
After Fullerton tied the game at two in the fifth, the Wildcats responded with two runs when junior first baseman Pat Reilly singled, stole second and scored on a one-out single by Boyer.
The Titans came back with three runs in the sixth, followed by three Arizona runs. in the sixth, followed by three Arizona runs.
Fullerton scored three more in the seventh and four in the eighth, while the Wildcats could only plate three runs in the final two frames.
Arizona used a total of eight pitchers, with freshman Mark Melancon (2-1) picking up the loss. Melancon went two-thirds of an inning and give up four runs on five hits.
The Wildcats used eight extra-base hits to beat the Titans 10-6 Saturday.
Arizona jumped out to a 9-1 lead before giving up five runs to the Titans in the eighth inning to close the gap to 9-6. The Wildcats added a run in their half of the eighth and junior pitcher Derek Rodriguez held Fullerton in the ninth.
Reilly and sophomore Trevor Crowe homered in the Wildcats' win, while freshman designated hitter DJ Lewis went 2-for-4 with three RBIs.
Sophomore Kevin Guyette (1-0) earned the win for the Wildcats, going seven innings and giving up six runs.
The Wildcats used some late-inning heroics in Friday's contest to beat the Titans 11-8.
Jason Donald capped a seven-run Arizona comeback with a three-run homer in the eighth inning. D.J. Lewis, another freshman, hit his first collegiate home run in his first collegiate at-bat, a solo homer in the second.
Junior Koley Kolberg gave up seven runs to the Titans in the game's first two innings, but the Wildcats were able to erase the deficit. Melancon earned the win for Arizona after giving up two hits in three innings of relief work.
Lopez was ejected from Friday's game after arguing an interference call in the third inning.
"Obviously, we feel good (about the series win), but we're not going to be satisfied with just two wins. We want to win three," Boyer said.