By Craig Degel
Arizona Daily Wildcat
The Arizona baseball team scored 25 runs in the final three innings of yesterday's game at Sancet Field. Not one of them would've made a difference, however Ä they already had 15.
Arizona cruised to a 40-10 Ä yes, that's 40 Ä victory over St. Francis on a day when the offensive records fell like Wildcat fly balls.
The 40 runs in one game broke a 30-year-old record set against New Mexico, when the Wildcats scored 36. The combined total of fifty runs broke the record of forty-nine set on that same day in 1965, a 36-13 UA victory.
"They did swing the bats good," UA coach Jerry Kindall said. "The guys just attacked the ball."
Arizona (10-8) scored in every inning except the fourth. The same team that scored 24 runs in Tuesday night's game scored nine runs in the second last night, and Ä while the crowd of 329 were probably wondering just what these guys could do for an encore Ä another 16 runs in the seventh inning.
The Wildcats also broke the record for largest margin of victory. Their 30-run margin was one better than the previous record of 29, done twice. The last time was a 29-0 victory over San Diego State in 1975.
The Terriers used five pitchers in the game. Each one of them had control trouble and problems finding the plate. The seven guys in the field didn't help the cause any, either.
St. Francis (0-3) committed 11 errors on the day Ä six of them in the second and seventh, Arizona's most productive innings.
The Wildcats committed five errors themselves, and two of them gave the Terriers a six-run sixth inning.
"We've been making some progress," Kindall said. "There are still a lot of rough edges, as you saw."
UA starter Kirt Kishita (1-0) picked up his first victory since 1993. He pitched 5 and 2/3 innings, allowing seven runs (one earned) and striking out six before being relieved by Jason
Ford. Kishita had been in rehabilitation since undergoing shoulder surgery halfway through the '93 season and just started throwing to batters after the winter school break.
"I've always been confident," Kishita said. "It was just a matter of my arm coming around. I'm slowly getting stronger and stronger."
Terrier starter Jim Giordano took the loss.
The Wildcats' second inning was highlighted by Chris Cooper's three-run home run, his first of the year. By the sixth inning, most of the Arizona starters grabbed some bench to give some quality game time to the reserves.
First baseman Andre Dawson Ä 2 for 5 on the night Ä made the most of his time, sending a double off the left field wall in the seventh with the bases loaded, scoring two. It was Dawson's run in the eighth on Corey Robbins bases-loaded triple that broke the runs-in-a-game record.
"Jeff Gjerde started off on fire," Dawson said. "The best I could do was perform. I'm able to accept the role I'm in. I'm just waiting."