Editor’s note: The Star will cover as many Arizona Wildcats home baseball games as possible, but not all of those stories will appear in the print edition. On those occasions, we will examine UA baseball in a non-traditional way.
The Arizona Wildcats defeated Albany 15-0 Saturday night at Hi Corbett Field to improve to 2-0 and secure a series victory on the opening weekend of the season. Here are six things we learned:
THREE UP
1. This team can rake
This might seem like an obvious point, given that Arizona ranked among the national leaders in multiple offense categories last season. They included the most important one: runs. The Wildcats averaged 9.8 per game, second most in the country.
But Arizona did lose two of its top run producers in second-round draft picks Cameron Cannon and Nick Quintana. Cannon led the team with a .397 batting average; Quintana notched team highs in home runs (15) and RBIs (77).
So it was fair to wonder if there would be a drop-off. We might not truly know for a while. The early returns suggest it’ll be more of the same.
Arizona has 27 runs through two games. Dating to last season, the Wildcats have reached double figures in five straight games and nine of their past 10. They haven’t scored fewer than seven runs in any of their past 17 games, averaging 13.6 runs over that span.
Arizona scored eight runs in two-plus innings off Albany freshman starter Cregg Scherrer, whose stuff impressed UA coach Jay Johnson.
“I just think our guys didn't really give him an inch,” Johnson said. “When he made a mistake, we hit it.
“In that first inning, we hit four balls really hard with two strikes on multiple pitches, so credit to our hitters in doing a good job with staying locked into (the) plan. The game’s not that easy. They deserve a lot of credit for the at-bats they’re taking.”
2 Ryan Holgate has improved
I wrote about Holgate earlier this week, focusing mainly on his physical transformation since last season. But the sophomore outfielder clearly put in time in the batting cage as well.
A somewhat one-dimensional hitter as a freshman, when he batted .240, Holgate has displayed a more complete repertoire through two games. The left-handed batter lined a single to left field for his first hit of the season Friday night before tattooing a home run to center.
In his first at-bat Saturday, Holgate made excellent contact on a 1-2 pitch, lining out to center. In the third inning, Holgate came up twice and drove in two runs each time with a ground double down the first-base line and a line single to right.
“He's got a lot of ability,” Johnson said. “His plate discipline’s good. He’s been really working hard on some swing things, some very simple things. It’s just part of his maturation process to become more complete.”
Holgate is 5 for 7 with four runs and five RBIs. Notably, he has yet to strike out.
He described his two-strike approach as follows: “Swing at a strike. Battle. Spoil a good pitch.”
3. Strikeouts are up … for UA pitchers
It’s hard to say whether this has something to do with new pitching coach Nate Yeskie or Arizona’s opening opponent (a subject we’ll address shortly). But the numbers so far are undeniable.
In Friday’s opener, the Wildcats struck out 14 batters – two more than in any game last season. On Saturday, starter Quinn Flanagan recorded a career-high 10 strikeouts in seven scoreless innings. His previous best was eight. Freshman Wesley Scott fanned three batters in two frames.
As Johnson noted late Friday, “It's a lot easier to play defense when you strike people out.” Arizona’s preponderance of walks was a bigger problem than its dearth of strikeouts last season. But the Wildcats ranked ninth in the Pac-12 in total strikeouts and K/9, and that didn’t help.
“I think it's just guys making good adjustments,” said Flanagan, who improved to 9-3 as a Wildcat. “We’ve really been focusing all fall and leading up in the spring on working ahead of guys, and that kind of frees you up to make pitches that hitters have to make a decision earlier on. I think that's what you're seeing.
“We did a good job staying ahead. Between me and Wesley, we were throwing a lot of good breaking balls, which kind of threw off the hitters.”
Flanagan notched most of his strikeouts on sliders. He slightly altered his grip on the pitch during the offseason, giving it more east-west movement.
THREE DOWN
1. Consider the competition
Let’s face it: Arizona should be handling Albany with relative ease.
The Great Danes went 28-23 last season, when their longtime coach, Jon Mueller, was named the America East Coach of the Year. They were picked to finish fourth in the league this season.
But the America East is typically a one-bid league in the NCAA Tournament. Every college baseball game is a challenge, but Arizona is easing into the season compared to, say, Stanford, which is hosting Cal State Fullerton (and is 0-2 entering Sunday).
You can only take so much from this opening series, no matter how good the Wildcats have looked.
2. Run rule needed
College baseball does not have a uniform run rule. I’m in favor of implementing one. Johnson is not.
My rationale: In mismatches such as Saturday’s game, it makes little sense to play the full nine innings. The Wildcats were up 14-0 through seven. There was no way the Great Danes were coming back.
I’d set the mercy rule at 10 runs after seven innings, and I’d limit it to non-conference and midweek games.
When I asked Johnson about the possibility Saturday night, he wasn’t having it. His reasoning was sound.
“I'm not for it, personally,” Johnson said. “We only get 56 games to play, and it's hard to get opportunities for everybody all the time, especially when you play a good schedule like we do and the competition that we do. So I'm not for it, just for that matter.”
The lopsidedness of Saturday’s game enabled Johnson to use 16 position players.
3. Defense is a work in progress
Arizona has committed four errors in two games, which isn’t ideal. Two of the errors in Friday’s game were more mental than physical: Pitcher Garrett Irvin threw the ball into center field while attempting to pick off a baserunner at second base with two outs and two strikes, and second baseman Jacob Blas tried to throw out a runner at first from his knees after making a sliding stop in short right field.
The other miscue Friday came on a groundball that third baseman Tony Bullard didn’t attack aggressively enough. Matthew Dyer made his first career start at third Saturday, and he threw wide of first after cleanly fielding a grounder in the eighth inning. That was the only baserunner Scott allowed in two innings.
“The three last night can easily be corrected,” Johnson said. “The one tonight, we’ve just got to get Matt playing over there a little bit more. That's the solution for that.”
Johnson and Dyer formulated a plan in the offseason for him to play multiple positions – possibly all of them. It remains to be seen how viable that is. Dyer, a superb athlete, played outfield, first base and catcher last year.
UP NEXT: Arizona (2-0) vs. Albany (0-2), Sunday, 1 p.m., Hi Corbett Field
