It took a close call at the plate, but the No. 9 Arizona baseball team salvaged the third game of its series against UC Riverside.
Sophomore shortstop Jason Donald threw out UCR's Brett Bigler with two outs in the ninth to preserve a 5-4 Wildcat victory yesterday at Sancet Stadium.
Bigler attempted to score on a single up the middle hit by Nick Salotti.
The ball died in the outfield before Donald picked it up and threw him out on a close play at home argued by Riverside.
Earlier in the series, the Highlanders (7-7) beat Arizona (11-3) 3-1 in a pitcher's duel Saturday and 12-8 in a game of scoring streaks Friday.
"You don't want to be swept anywhere, but I was happy to see us play good baseball," said Arizona head coach Andy Lopez. "We hadn't played good baseball for two nights."
"It was good for us to jump out early in the ballgame, and just play good defense and get good, quality pitching at the end," he said.
The Wildcats scored all five runs in the first two frames, including a four-run first inning with all runs scored before the Highlanders recorded an out.
Junior first baseman Jordan Brown highlighted the rally with a three-run home run, his team-leading sixth of the season to go along with a team-best 25 RBIs.
Senior Sean Rierson (2-0) started his first game of the season and pitched 5.1 innings, giving up three runs on four hits.
"I'm glad I was able to pitch a little deeper into a game and get a deep pitch count and try to build up some endurance," Rierson said. "There were a couple bad pitches I made, and I've got to perform better on those, but I got some runs early in the game and I was able to pitch well from there."
Rierson threw 74 pitches, just over the 70-pitch target Lopez and Rierson agreed on before the game.
While Rierson said he tired by the end, after holding Riverside scoreless through the first three innings, he said it was an accomplishment to pitch into the sixth inning.
"He pitched well," Lopez said. "I was real happy with Sean, and again he's going to be a factor. He's going to create some competition on the pitching staff, and that's a good thing."
Sophomore closer Mark Melancon held the Highlanders scoreless over 2.1 innings to earn his second save of the season and bounce back from a poor Friday outing.
Junior Kevin Guyette (2-1) pitched his best game of the season Saturday, but the offense came up short in a 3-1 loss.
Guyette pitched a complete game, allowing three runs while striking out a career-high 15.
It took until the ninth inning for Arizona to mount its first rally.
Sophomore right fielder Bill Rhinehart singled home Brown with two outs for the game's only run.
However, the rally ended there, as sophomore Lee Franklin, pinch-running for Rhinehart, was thrown out stealing second.
Arizona missed two of its top offensive performers Saturday, leading to its poor showing at the plate, a season-low five hits.
Senior outfielder Jeff Van Houten missed the game with an illness, while junior catcher Nick Hundley had to attend to a family matter.
Junior Derek Decater got the start at designated hitter after Rhinehart moved to right field, and freshman Drew McDonald got his first collegiate start behind the plate.
Junior left fielder Trevor Crowe went hitless in four at-bats, snapping his team-high 20-game hitting streak dating back to last season.
After extending his own on Sunday, Van Houten (20 games) has the team's leading run, with Brown sporting a 14-game streak.
Two unlikely pitching candidates failed to come through Friday evening, as junior ace John Meloan and sophomore closer Melancon pitched ineffectively.
Meloan dug Arizona in a deep hole, allowing seven runs on nine hits in four innings of play as the Wildcats trailed 7-0 after four innings.
Arizona battled back, scoring eight unanswered runs highlighted by a two-run home run by Brown to take a 8-7 lead after six innings.
That did not last long, as Melancon allowed two inherited runs to score in the seventh before allowing another two in the eighth while giving up his first earned runs of the season.
"It is just one of those things that you have to take as part of the 56-game experience, but again that's the challenge of athletics," Lopez said. "You've got to stay good, you've got to stay consistent and you've got to stay after it. They'll get another chance. Obviously both those guys will get another opportunity, and hopefully this is just one of those fluke things."
Meloan's ERA rose from 0.54 to 3.48, while Melancon's jumped from 0.00 to 1.50. Eight walks, including three from Melancon, led the Wildcats in allowing a season-high of 12 runs.
Freshman second baseman Brett Scyphers started both rallies, filling in for freshman infielder Bryan Kervin.
Kervin suffered a broken left hand sliding into second base in Wednesday's 11-5 win over ASU and will likely miss five to six weeks.
The lone bright spot for Arizona involved the offense, which scored all eight runs with two outs.
That trend started Wednesday against ASU, when the team scored 9-of-11 runs with two men gone, including three unearned runs in this contest.
Brown said that everything went wrong Friday evening and that the team put out a poor effort.
"We didn't play catch, we didn't throw strikes, we couldn't put the ball in play," he said. "I wouldn't say it was a letdown from ASU, it was just simply our guys not playing well, not coming out with tenacity like we normally do."