Pitchers lead Wildcats to sweep of No. 13 Baylor

Matt Heistand Arizona Daily Wildcat Senior infielder Erik Mattern (16) throws the ball to the pitcher in last week's game against Baylor. Mattern leads the Wildcats with 22 RBI and helped the No. 24 Wildcats sweep No. 13 Baylor (0-3). Arizona will host New Mexico State in a two-game series tomorrow and Wednesday.

"They stepped up big-time," UA left fielder Jason Hendricks said.

With southpaws James Johnson and Rob Shabansky leading the way, No. 24 Arizona improved to 11-0 with a sweep of No. 13 Baylor (0-3).

After right-hander Darrell Hussman's dominating performance against Baylor in Thursday's 8-1 win, Shabansky and Johnson continued to stymie the Bears' hitters.

"We didn't pitch to our potential in the first eight games,"Johnson (2-0) said.

Johnson led Arizona to a 9-6 win on Saturday to complete the sweep.

"Being able to throw more than two pitches for strikes," was the key to his six inning, nine strike out performance Johnson said. "I was doing real well with my split-finger (fastball). Any time I've got that bad boy going I know I'm going to do well."

Johnson did very well, limiting Baylor to only three runs.

The Arizona offense, which has now totalled 147 runs in the 11 wins, was there to back Johnson up.

Catcher Greg Clark doubled in a run in the bottom of the second to start the scoring. For Clark it was his 10th straight game with at least one run driven in.

A sac-fly and a wild pitch allowed three more runs to score, and Arizona had a comfortable 4-0 lead that it would never relinquish.

Baylor made it a close game by chasing UA reliever Ryan Moskau off the mound in the top of the seventh. A pair of two-run homers by Baylor second baseman Eric Nelson and third baseman Matt Williams cut the lead to 9-6, but left-hander Tony Milo came in and picked up the save by shutting the Bears down over the last 2 1/3 innings.

After going 8-22 against ranked competition last year, the Wildcats are now 3-0 and seem likely to move up in this week's poll.

"I think they caught us at a bad time," UA second baseman Erik Mattern said. "We're playing real well and they're just starting. If they played us at the end of the year it would probably have been a lot closer."

Mattern now leads the team with 22 RBI, which he admitted was "uncharacteristic" for a lead-off hitter.

"It just shows that one through nine, everyone is hitting the ball," Mattern said.

Arizona gets today off before hosting New Mexico State in a two-game series tomorrow and Wednesday, with both games starting at 3 p.m.