Cats take two of three from Huskies
The No. 13 Arizona baseball team won its first Pacific 10 Conference series over Washington, but once again failed to find an answer to its third starter problem.
The Wildcats (19-10, 2-1 Pac-10) fell 16-8 Saturday to the Huskies (14-10, 1-2) after winning a 6-5, 12-inning thriller Friday and opening the series with a 13-6 win Thursday.
Freshman David Coulon (2-1) failed to nail down the third starter spot Saturday, giving up four runs in two innings while walking four and hitting three batters.
Coulon stranded five runners in the first two innings but could not get out of a third-inning jam when Washington scored seven to take a six-run lead.
Senior Sean Rierson relieved Coulon but did not do much better, serving up a grand slam to Matt Lane.
"I kept getting myself in a lot of jams," Coulon said. "You can't keep putting yourself in a position and hope to get out of it, and it finally caught up to me."
Arizona battled back, cutting the lead to 7-6 on junior catcher Nick Hundley's two-run double in the fourth, but the pitching staff could not stop Washington.
The Huskies tacked on four in the sixth and three in the seventh to regain control of the game.
Arizona head coach Andy Lopez said he was very concerned with the third starter spot.
"The opportunity's there for a couple of guys to jump on it, and there's an opportunity right now for a couple pitchers to say, 'Hey, I'm the guy,'" he said. "I don't care if you're a freshman. I don't care if you're a dolphin. I'll find a uniform for you. We just need a guy to come out and pitch a little more effectively."
Lopez said that freshman Matt Baugh, who did not allow a run in 1 2/3 innings, could get the start next Sunday.
"We don't have anybody else so we might as well," he said. "He's a candidate."
Freshman infielder Jason Seefeld, an all-state pitcher in high school, pitched the ninth. Seefeld allowed one run in the inning.
Senior right fielder Jeff Van Houten gave Arizona the series win with a deep walk-off home run in the 12th inning Friday evening.
Van Houten said he knew immediately that his blast was gone. He had never hit a walk-off home run in his career at any level.
"From the run we had last year, we know what it takes to win, and we realize that when you play hard you'll win a lot of games," Van Houten said.
Van Houten would never have had the chance to be the hero if junior first baseman Jordan Brown had not come up with some heroics of his own in the bottom of the ninth.
Trailing 5-3 with the bases loaded, two outs and two strikes in the count, Brown smashed a ball over the right field fence that barely hooked right of the foul pole.
After jumping up and down in disappointment, Brown said he took 10 deep breaths to keep his composure before promptly doubling down the left field line to bring home the tying runs.
"They put a shift on me," Brown said. "They think I can't go to the opposite field, so it felt good. My objective was to hit the ball down the line where they don't play."
Although Brown said he thought he hit a home run on the previous pitch, that did not stop him from coming up with the clutch RBIs.
"I stepped out and said, 'Well, you know, just because that was foul doesn't mean the next one can't be a game-winning hit or a game-tying hit," he said.
Sophomore closer Mark Melancon (1-2) allowed one earned run over five innings and kept the Huskies off the board in extra innings to get the win.
"For a closer that's stretching it," Lopez said. "He's got that makeup, so I was real proud of what he did for us."
Junior Kevin Guyette allowed four runs in seven innings while combining with Melancon to strike out 14 hitters.
Arizona struck out 18 Huskies in Thursday's 13-6 win, including a career-high-tying 12 from junior John Meloan (5-0).
A six-run sixth inning blew the game open for Arizona.