Arizona baseball team wins to advance to Super Regionals

LAFAYETTE, La. – The Arizona Wildcats achieved the improbable here.

Needing to win three consecutive elimination games to advance in the NCAA baseball tournament — two against regional host and top seed Louisiana-Lafayette — Arizona somehow pulled it off.

The Wildcats swept the Ragin’ Cajuns on Monday, by scores of 6-3 and 3-1, stunning everyone but themselves.

Arizona (42-21) advances to its first Super Regional since 2012 — the last time the Wildcats played in the postseason (when they also happened to win the College World Series). The UA will play at Mississippi State in a best-of-3 starting Friday or Saturday.

Louisiana Lafayette (43-21) had won 12 consecutive games entering Monday, including a 10-3 victory over Arizona on Sunday.

Officially, all the games here are neutral-site contests. In both games Monday, Arizona was the “home” team – i.e., the Wildcats got the last at-bat.

But make no mistake: The Ragin’ Cajuns had a large and loud presence at M.L. "Tigue" Moore Field, where they fashioned a 22-5 record during the regular season. Arizona overcame that, too.

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After using Nathan Bannister on two days’ rest in the earlier game Monday – a wise decision, it turned out – UA coach Jay Johnson started Kevin Ginkel on zero days’ rest in the second game. Ginkel had pitched in relief Sunday as well as Monday, throwing a total of 38 pitches.

Ginkel last 5 2/3 innings, allowing one run on four hits and departing with a 3-1 lead. He walked two, struck out three and threw 72 pitches. He left in the sixth with a runner on second base, but reliever Cameron Ming stranded him there by striking out Brenn Conrad.

Arizona scraped together just enough runs to prevail. As happened in the first game, the Wildcats struck in the first inning. After Zach Gibbons’ one-out single, Ryan Aguilar hit a hard grounder through the hole on the right side. Aguilar hustled into second base for a double, and the throw from right fielder Steven Sensley got away, allowing Gibbons to score and Aguilar to advance. He then scored on a wild pitch to make it 2-0.

In the bottom of the second, Louis Boyd hit a one-out double down the third-base line. Cody Ramer followed with a single past diving second baseman Stefan Trosclair to drive in Boyd.

Louisiana-Lafayette’s lone run against Ginkel came on Kyle Clement’s long solo home run to right leading off the top of the fourth.

Ming pitched 3 1/3 scoreless innings to finish the game.