We know Arizona can and will hit under Jay Johnson. The Wildcats ranked third or better in the Pac-12 in on-base percentage and runs in each of Johnson’s first three seasons.
The question is whether they can pitch at or near the level they achieved in Johnson’s first season, when they advanced to the College World Series finals.
Johnson and his staff attacked the pitching problem aggressively in recruiting, and the fruits of their labor were on display Saturday at Hi Corbett Field.
Newcomers Andrew Nardi and Bryce Collins started in a doubleheader against UMass Lowell. Both offered encouraging signs during a UA sweep.
Nardi notched his first Arizona victory in Game 1, an 18-4 rout. Collins pitched well — and frequently pitched out of trouble — in Game 2, which the Wildcats won 19-4.
UA freshman Ryan Holgate hit a three-run homer in each game. The second — which cleared the batter’s eye in center field — precipitated a benches-clearing incident in the bottom of the fourth.
After yielding the three-run bomb, River Hawks starter Connor Metelski threw the next pitch over Nick Quintana’s head. Both dugouts emptied, and heated words were exchanged.
Johnson, who doubles as Arizona’s third-base coach, sprinted across the diamond to help herd the Wildcats back into the dugout. The umpires huddled for several minutes. Metelski and UML coach Ken Harring were ejected.
“Ryan Holgate hit a home run. Their pitcher didn’t like it,” Johnson said. “He threw at Nick. It’s not OK. It’s not OK to throw at anybody intentionally in college baseball. The umpires did a good job of taking care of it.”
The dugout rushes to celebrate a three-run homer by Arizona’s Ryan Holgate during the first inning of the first game.
The dustup overshadowed Collins’ debut. The freshman, a compactly built, bespectacled right-hander, was charged with two earned runs in four innings. He struck out six, walked four and stranded five baserunners between the second and fourth innings.
Collins, who prepped at Hart High School in Santa Clarita, California, couldn’t escape the top of the fifth. After Collins walked the first two batters, Johnson summoned another newcomer, junior-college transfer Vince Vannelle, from the bullpen.
Vannelle allowed an RBI single, but that was it. The Wildcats held a 7-3 lead and were never threatened thereafter en route to their third straight win to open the 2019 season.
“Vince is somebody that we’re going to rely on heavily,” Johnson said. “He has great poise. He’s a great competitor. He’ll be counted on a lot.”
Nardi, a bushy-haired left-hander with a neatly trimmed Van Dyke beard, came to Arizona from Moorpark (Calif.) College. He compiled a 6-4 record last season with a 2.48 ERA and 91 strikeouts in 80 innings.
A phalanx of scouts came to see Nardi on Saturday, and he didn’t disappoint. Nardi struck out nine batters in five innings, allowing three hits and two runs. The last five hitters he faced struck out swinging.
Nardi primarily relied on a low-90s fastball and a slider. He threw 44 of 64 pitches for strikes.
Arizona’s Andrew Nardi earned his first victory with the Wildcats by striking out nine in five innings in the opener.
Johnson struck gold with junior-college transfers JC Cloney and Kevin Ginkel, two key members of the 2016 staff. Nardi is off to a promising start.
It didn’t hurt that Arizona scored 10 runs in the bottom of the first — a half-inning that bordered on the bizarre.
UMass Lowell sophomore starter Henry Funaro couldn’t find the plate and at times didn’t come close. Three of his pitches to leadoff batter Matt Fraizer hit the backstop netting.
Funaro walked the first three batters he faced, got a double-play groundout and was a routine putout away from escaping the inning with 1-0 deficit. But an error by shortstop Mark Tumosa led to an avalanche of runs.
Matthew Dyer, another transfer, followed with his first UA home run, a two-run shot to left. A hit batsman, two more walks, a pitching change and a pair of singles preceded Holgate’s first three-run homer. Holgate became the second freshman in as many days to make his first hit as a Wildcat a three-run home run to center field. Austin Wells did it Friday, also in the first inning.
Funaro finished with a funky final line: He was charged with seven runs in two-thirds of an inning, but only one was earned. He walked five, and the only hit he surrendered was Dyer’s home run.
Quintana had the misfortune of making all three outs in the bottom of the first.
Another new pitcher, wiry freshman left-hander Randy Abshier, allowed two runs over the final four innings. He became the second UA pitcher in as many days to record a four-inning save.
Inside pitch
- Redshirt freshman Kobe Kato made his UA debut in the seventh inning of Game 1. Kato sliced a triple down the left-field line in his first career at-bat, driving in a pair of runs. Freshmen Dayton Dooney and Ryan Archibald also notched their first career hits in Game 1. Archibald hit his first career homer in Game 2.
- UA junior Cameron Cannon reached base in all four plate appearances in Game 1, going 3 for 3 with three doubles and a walk. Dyer went 3 for 3 in Game 2.
- Several recent Wildcats took in Game 1 from the first-base box seats, including Cloney, Cody Deason, Michael Flynn, Cameron Ming and Jared Oliva. Deason has been working out at X2 Athletic Performance in Scottsdale with Luke Hagerty, the pitcher recently profiled by ESPN.com who’s attempting a comeback at age 37.
- Redshirt freshman right-hander Quinn Flanagan is scheduled to start for Arizona in Sunday’s series finale.
