Wildcats lose final fall exhibition game

Kristy Mangos Arizona Daily Wildcat Freshman right fielder Shelley Duncan (18) is congratulated by junior catcher Dennis Anderson (26) after Duncan's solo home run in the first inning against the Dutch national team Friday night at Sancet Field. Arizona lost the game 11-4.

The Dutch, who had many fans on hand waving their national flag, scored seven runs in their half of the fourth inning, capped by a grand slam against Wildcat pitcher Michael Crawford. That inning gave them an 8-1 lead en route to the 11-4 victory.

"That one inning was pretty hard to overcome," UA head coach Jerry Stitt said. "We did all right, but we just didn't swing the bat well enough."

The Dutch scored in the top of the first inning, but the Wildcats countered with a towering 415-foot home run to center field by Arizona freshman rightfielder Shelley Duncan.

After that, Wildcat freshman pitcher Ben Diggins struck out the side in the third, but was then taken out of the game to make way for Crawford in the fourth.

The Wildcats mustered 11 hits, but the Dutch beat up Arizona pitchers Crawford, Josh Pearce and Mike Meyer for 16 hits.

"They played damn good tonight," Duncan said. "We got good experience in our games against the Dutch in victory and defeat so we won't be surprised when it happens in the regular season."

The Wildcats defeated the same Dutch team 11-7 Oct. 17.

"Baseball is a weird game," Duncan said. "You can have on and off nights, but if you take away that one inning we have the game."

As "fallball" comes to a close for the young Wildcat baseball team, Stitt seemed pleased with the progress of his players.

"The one thing that (we) wanted out of this fall was to find out things we needed to work on," Stitt said. "It is important to win but it is also important to make adjustments and they did just that this fall."

To that, sophomore shortstop Keoni DeRenne, who is listed as a leader on this team in just his second year, replied, "We're coming along and clicking as a team. We played good, they just played better. Luckily for them, tonight was their night."

Dan Rosen can be reached via e-mail at Dan.Rosen@wildcat.arizona.edu.