While many people were at home watching Tuesday night television, the Arizona baseball team was waging war with the Grand Canyon Antelopes.

The game was a must win for the Wildcats (23-27 overall, 6-18 in the Pacific 10 Conference Southern Division), as they hoped to win the season series with the Antelopes and start the last seven games of the season with a win. UA got it, beating the Antelopes 6-5 in 10 innings at Sancet Field.

The game was back and forth. Arizona started senior left-hander Ben White, (3-4) who stalled the Antelopes (20-26) with a season-high 11 strikeouts. But he also allowed two clutch home runs, and was relieved in the eighth inning by Tyler Haddix. Haddix only lasted an inning and a third before being replaced by Matt Hendren, who finished the game.

"They're pretty good hitters," Hendren said of the Antelopes. "They're scrappy and they know how to play. They battle us every time. I just tried to keep it down and make them hit it on the ground."

The Wildcats held a 5-3 lead going into the ninth inning, but the Antelopes were able to stage a two-run comeback to tie the game. In the 10th inning Arizona played solid defense and make two successful plays at home for outs. The first was a hard shot to shortstop Eric Mattern, who connected with catcher Tom King, and the second was a drive to first baseman Jeff Gjerde. The third out came on a high fly ball to left fielder Omar Moraga.

"There were a lot of clutch plays," White said of the UA defense. "When it came down to it, we got the job done. When it counted late in the game, our guys were there and did the job."

Arizona put in pinch hitter Russ Brown to lead off the bottom half of the 10th inning. He walked, and stole second base with King up to bat. King was hit by pitcher Justin Bice and took his base, bringing up third baseman Jake Thrower. Thrower had bunted successfully earlier in the game and intended to do the same. His bunt to the third-base side forced Bice to make a bad throw to first base which scored Brown and won the game.

"The game was very important," Arizona head coach Jerry Kindall said. "You can tell how important we thought it was, we threw our three best pitchers. I'm very glad to win it."

Offensively, the Wildcats were led by sophomore center fielder Diego Rico, who was 3-5 with 1 RBI, and Mattern, who went 2-5 and drove in two runs.