Arizona takes series from Washington thanks to strong pitching, clutch hitting

Fresh off ending its 10-game Pac-12 losing streak Friday night, Arizona carried that momentum into Saturday afternoon. On the back of a strong outing from starter Aiden May and some clutch two-out hitting, the Wildcats defeated Washington 13-1 to take the series over the Huskies at Hi Corbett Field.

It was the first series win for the Wildcats since sweeping Cal March 10-12.

May (3-2) earned the win, allowing one run on five hits across five innings to go along with five strikeouts and one walk.

After surrendering at least five runs in every game during the 10-game conference losing streak, the UA pitching staff has now delivered back-to-back strong outings from both the starters and relievers.

“I thought the pitchers did a wonderful job,” said Arizona coach Chip Hale, whose team improved to 16-13, 5-10 in the Pac-12. “I mean obviously Aiden battled through it. He had some trouble at times but kept throwing it. He threw a lot of off-speed stuff today.”

May allowed just one hit through the first two innings before leaving two runners stranded in each of the next two frames. In the fifth inning, May allowed a single and a double to put two in scoring position, but a strikeout and a fantastic catch by left fielder Chase Davis at the wall allowed him to limit the damage to just one run.

The catch by Davis wasn’t the only defensive highlight for UA as Nik McClaughry snagged a couple of one-hoppers as well at shortstop.

“Pitching is so much easier when you have a defense like that behind you,” May said. “You go out and you expect things like that will happen. It’s just awesome to have guys like that (who) make those plays.”

Emilio Corona opened up the scoring in the second inning with a two-run home run after Tyler Casagrande reached on a two-out single. Facing his former team this weekend, Corona totaled five hits and seven RBIs, including five Saturday.

Corona said he had “nothing but love” for the Huskies, especially the coaching staff, but it was clear he was playing with something to prove this weekend.

“It’s definitely easier to get more fired up and ready to go,” Corona said.

The theme of the game at the plate for the Wildcats was at-bats with two outs. They had 15 hitters reach base with two outs via six hits, six walks, a hit batter and two errors. The biggest of them all came in the sixth inning when Kiko Romero ripped a two-run single with the bases loaded to extend the Wildcats’ lead to 4-1.

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“We always preach the process over the outcome, so whatever the outcome is, just keep pushing, keep attacking and keep battling,” Hale said. “That was the positive of it, just never say die.”

The Wildcats added two more runs in the seventh inning before blowing the game open with a seven-run eighth.

Following the five innings May tossed, Eric Orloff, Dawson Netz and Chris Barraza combined to throw four shutout innings. The one run allowed by the Arizona pitching staff was its best performance since allowing one run to North Dakota State on March 5.

Orloff had allowed five runs without recording an out in his previous two appearances before throwing two perfect innings Saturday.

“Eric, I thought, was a huge step forward,” Hale said. “He had been so good for us and then struggled, and to get the two clean innings was huge for him.”

Inside pitch

Every Arizona starter recorded at least one hit. The Wildcats had 17 hits as a team.

Casagrande went 4 for 5 with four runs scored.

UA batters drew nine walks, a season high. Arizona’s previous high was six.

The Wildcats’ eight-game homestand concludes Tuesday against New Mexico State. Arizona then hits the road for a three-game series at Washington State on Friday before hosting Arizona State in a non-conference game a week from Wednesday.