The Arizona Wildcats’ season-opening victory Friday night featured a promising mix of the new and the familiar.
The new: key offensive contributions from first-year Wildcats Mitchell Morimoto and Nick Quintana.
The familiar: stellar pitching by veteran starter JC Cloney.
It added up to a crisp 6-0 triumph over Eastern Kentucky in front of an announced crowd of 3,716 at Hi Corbett Field.
Jay Johnson couldn’t have asked for a better start to his second season as Arizona’s coach.
“The crowd was awesome,” Johnson said. “We don’t take this lightly. This doesn’t happen in college baseball on the West Coast. That fueled our guys.
“Opening day is always special. They don’t need any extra motivation or speeches. I thought they handled it well. I thought they settled into the game. JC certainly helped us do that.”
Cloney allowed only one hit in seven surgically efficient innings — a double by Daniel McFarland on the first pitch of the game. From that point forward, Cloney allowed only one baserunner — on a strikeout.
Jacob Abbott swung and missed to lead off the top of the sixth, and he reached base after the breaking ball in the dirt bounded away from catcher Cesar Salazar. Cloney stranded Abbott at second base.
Cloney has pitched 23 consecutive scoreless innings, dating to last year’s College World Series. He described what it’s like to be in the proverbial zone.
“You kind of get in a groove,” the senior left-hander said. “You feel like everything’s working. Whatever pitch they call, you just go and throw it. You don’t think about it.”
Cloney became the first UA pitcher to win consecutive opening-day starts since Kurt Heyer in 2011-12. Cloney threw 74 pitches, including 57 for strikes. He did not have a single three-ball count.
“He made it easy on us,” Morimoto said.
Morimoto and Quintana were two of four newcomers in Arizona’s Game 1 lineup. Morimoto, a right-handed hitter, started in left field and batted leadoff against left-handed Colonels starter Jack Piekos. The transfer from Mesa Community College had two hits, reached base three times and scored the Wildcats’ first two runs.
Morimoto found out he was starting earlier Friday and was surprised to learn he’d be batting leadoff. He opened the game by reaching base on a hit-by-pitch.
“Just doing my job,” Morimoto said, “getting on so the guys behind me can do their jobs and get me in. Any way possible — wearing that pitch or putting one in play. Whatever it takes.”
Quintana — who chose to attend Arizona despite being drafted in the 11th round by the Boston Red Sox — started at third base and batted fifth. After going hitless in his first two at-bats, Quintana drilled an RBI double down the third-base line to spark the Wildcats’ three-run sixth inning that expanded their lead from 2-0 to 5-0. Quintana also drew a walk and scored two runs.
“After those first two at-bats, it was just like any other day at the park,” Quintana said. “It was comfortable.”
Another newcomer, right-hander Seve Romo, pitched two scoreless innings in relief to secure Arizona’s first opening-day shutout since 2013. The victory was the Wildcats’ ninth in a row to open a season.
Inside pitch
- Game 2 Saturday is slated for 1 p.m. It was moved up from 6 p.m. because of rain in the forecast. Arizona’s players and coaches rolled out the infield tarp after Friday’s game.
- Nathan Bannister and Zach Gibbons, two stars of the 2016 squad, were in attendance.
- Cody Moffett, a senior pitcher on last year’s team, is serving as an undergraduate assistant coach this season.
- Interim athletic director Erika Barnes stopped by Hi Corbett Field, the second of three UA sporting events she attended Friday. Barnes’ circuit began at a UA softball game against Ball State and ended at the women’s basketball team’s upset of Arizona State.
- Quintana’s walk in the bottom of the eighth was the only base on balls issued in the game.
- Every Arizona batter had at least one hit except shortstop Louis Boyd.
