The 24th-ranked Wildcats baseball team kept swinging away in a 16-5 win at Rice on Wednesday night.
Arizona (5-0) has scored at least 12 runs in each its first five games after sweeping UMass Lowell to open the season with a combined 69-17 run margin. UA’s first road game was much of the same.
The Wildcats plated a run against Rice (2-3) in each of the first three innings before Avery Weems surrendered his first of two runs on the night in the fourth. Ryan Holgate, who entered Wednesday having hit a home run in three consecutive games, stayed hot with an RBI single in the first inning, and finished 2 for 4 at the plate with two walks and two runs scored.
Arizona’s bats took off later in the game, when Donta Williams hit a two-run homer in the fifth — his first of the season — and Austin Wells knocked in three runs of his own on the night with a double, sac fly and fielding error.
The Wildcats added three runs in the sixth inning, three in the seventh and five in the eighth. UA had 17 hits and drew 11 walks while taking advantage of eight errors by the Owls.
Shortstop Cameron Cannon hit his seventh double of the year in a 4-for-5 night the plate, to go along with three runs scored, an RBI and a walk.
Wells (3 for 6), Nick Quintana (2 for 4) and Matthew Dyer (2 for 2) also contributed multi-hit efforts for the Wildcats.
Weems (1-0) picked up his first win of the year by tossing five innings and striking out four while also walking two.
The Wildcats visit Houston for a three-game series starting Friday, when the first pitch is scheduled for 5:30 p.m.
