After the Arizona baseball team needed seven pitchers en route to its 12-inning walk-off win Saturday, the Wildcats surely needed a quality outing from their Sunday starter in the final game of a three-game set against North Dakota State.
They got that from starter Bradon Zastrow, and got plenty extra at the plate via two home runs by Mac Bingham and a three-run home run from Kiko Romero to carry UA to an 11-1, victory Sunday to complete the sweep over the Bison at Hi Corbett Field.
“We did a good job all weekend in the first couple of innings — you know 1-2-3 (on the mound) to get our hitters in there and give us a chance to score some runs,” Arizona coach Chip Hale said after the win, which ended in eight innings due to NDSU’s travel deadline to get out of Tucson Sunday. “I thought that’s a real positive from all of them. We just keep hitting that little bump in the middle there.”
Arizona exploded for a four-run third inning off back-to-back home runs from Romero and Bingham — the first two hits of the game for UA. It was the second straight day with a home run for Romero, blasting a 411-foot long ball over the Terry Francona Hitting Center.
After getting hit hard by West Virginia last weekend, Zastrow bounced back with his best start of the season. He allowed just four hits over five scoreless innings in start the game. North Dakota State got on the board with a solo home run to open the sixth inning. Zastrow went on to walk two of the next three hitters before picking up back-to-back strikeouts to escape the jam.
Lefty Bradon Zastrow, pictured delivering in relief during UA baseball's intra-squad scrimmage at Hi Corbett Field on Jan. 27, had his best start of the season Sunday against North Dakota State. Zastrow gave up one run on five hits across six innings, while striking out a season-high eight in an efficient enough 94-pitch outing.
Zastrow finished the day with a quality start. He allowed one run on five hits across six innings to go along with a season-high eight strikeouts while throwing 94 pitches.
“I was trying to be more efficient and more mechanically sound this time to allow me to go more innings,” Zastrow said.
Bingham hit his second home run of the game in the fifth inning for his second two-home run day of the season. He now has a team-high five home runs so far this year.
After losing the first two games of its home-opening series to West Virginia last weekend, UA has reeled off five straight wins — all at Hi Corbett — and now sit at 8-3 overall on the season. Arizona heads up to Phoenix for one game Tuesday at Grand Canyon before beginning conference play next weekend at home against Cal.
As Hale suggested it would heading into the season, the depth of his pitching staff — the bullpen in particular — has seen a noticeable improvement for Arizona to this point in the season. Trevor Long has both of the Wildcats saves on the season maintaining his closer role from last year. Dawson Netz, George Arias Jr., Chris Barraza and Eric Orloff have all been strong in their respective roles out of the bullpen.
“We’re getting there,” Hale said on the current momentum of the team. “I think we got to figure out our pitching a little bit for the weekend.”
TJ Nichols, Anthony Susac and Zastrow figure to remain the weekend starters for the Wildcats.
At the plate, it was a slow start for many of UA’s hitters but the lineup has started heating up. Arizona is Averaging just over 11 runs per game on the team’s current five-game win streak.
Arizona center fielder Mac Bingham, pictured hitting a three-run home run in at the MLB Desert Invitational earlier this season, had his second-consecutive two-home run Sunday to close out a series at home. Bingham went deep twice against NDSU on March 5, helping Arizona to the series sweep over the Bison at Hi Corbett Field.
“I would say throughout the whole beginning of the year so far, everyone has been putting good swings on the ball and hitting the ball hard,” Bingham said, “I’d say in the beginning, most balls just weren’t dropping. … I think just slowly the hits will come and they’ll fall and that’s what we’ve been seeing.”
The presence of Romero defensively at first base has been notable. He’s also on a five-game hitting streak with multiple hits in four of those games to go along with 10 RBIs during that span.
In the field, Arizona’s six errors entering Sunday’s action were the third-fewest in the conference, although the Wildcats did add to that with one error in the finale against NDSU. But that success and consistency has allowed the pitching staff to feel more comfortable pitching to contact.
“The defense we have is outstanding,” Zastrow said. “It makes it a lot easier to pitch the ball and let them work.”
Inside pitch
Preseason All-American Chase Davis, hitting .341 on the season with four home runs and 13 RBIs in 10 starts, was scratched from Sunday’s lineup after fouling a ball off his foot on Saturday. His foot was sore Saturday night and while it didn’t feel good Sunday morning, Hale noted that Davis would have played if Sunday’s game was in the afternoon or evening.
Tyler Casagrande, who started in place of Davis, picked up a pair of hits and RBIs.
UA will have its first true road game Tuesday at Grand Canyon’s Brazell Field at GCU Ballpark. “It’ll be exciting,” Hale said. “It’s a big game. It’s going to be huge up there. They pack that place and I told the young guys to be ready, you’ll be surprised what you see. They’re a very good team, so it’ll be a good challenge for us.”
Right-hander Aiden May (1-0, 6.30) is expected to start for Arizona.
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Arizona first baseman Kiko Romero, who played locally in high school at Canyon del Oro, discusses joining the Wildcats — a "dream school" for him — for his first season of Division I ball this year after a successful run in the junior college ranks. Video by Devin Homer, Special to the Arizona Daily Star
