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UA Baseball Notes

Following a series in which the Wildcats lost two of three games to Southern California, the UA baseball team (18-20 overall, 3-6 Pacific 10 Conference) will spend the next two weekends facing Washington and Oregon State on the road. UA head coach Jerry Stitt believes the trips will be challenging for the Wildcats, who took one of three games from Stanford in Palo Alto, Calif., two weekends ago.

"It's not easy to play on the road, not easy to play anywhere," he said. "We've got to travel to Washington. They've got a good club, they're tough at home."

First baseman Ernie Durazo sees the road trips a bit differently.

"It's good to get away sometimes (and) relax," he said. "I love playing on the road. I never really traveled before, so it's good for me."

In Sunday afternoon's game, the Wildcats threatened to break a 2-2 tie in the bottom of the eighth inning. Center fielder Troy Gingrich walked to lead off the inning. Following a pop out by junior third baseman Trevor Mote and a walk to junior shortstop Keoni DeRenne, the Wildcats had their best opportunity of the game to break the tie.

Following a pitching change by Southern California, sophomore designated hitter Ben Diggins hit a long fly ball to center field for the second out of the inning.

With two on and two out, Durazo hit a long fly ball to left field, but the ball was caught by the Trojan left fielder about five feet short of the wall.

"We hit the ball pretty well," Durazo said. "I'm going to take the blame for the eighth. I didn't play the game right. I've got to do the job right with the game on the line."

Following the game, Stitt said the game hinged on UA's inability to convert with runners in scoring position.

"We had a guy on second, (with) nobody out," he said. "We couldn't get the bunts down."

Following Friday night's 11-4 victory against Southern California, Stitt spoke highly of Diggins, who allowed just one earned run on eight hits in eight full innings.

"I felt pretty good," Diggins said. "It's hard to play with a large lead sometimes, but we did all right." Diggins, who allowed two unearned runs in the first inning, had a hard time getting warm, according to Stitt.

"He wasn't real loose until the second inning," he said.

With the win, Diggins improved to 8-0 on the season, the best start for a Wildcat pitcher in 25 years.

Stitt proceeded to compare the sophomore to former Wildcat and current Baltimore Orioles' starter Scott Erickson.

"He's one of the best," Stitt said. "Erickson was just dominant out there every Friday night. It's the same way with Benny. Every Friday night is Benny's."