Needing to secure as many wins as possible to keep their NCAA Tournament hopes alive, the University of Arizona baseball team scratched and clawed to a comeback victory Sunday.
The Wildcats held off Air Force 11-10 in a wild back-and-forth contest at Hi Corbett Field, getting the game-winning run in the bottom of the ninth when Tyler Casagrande brought home Mason White on a sacrifice fly for the walk-off win.
Arizona took the three-game series with the victory and improved to 25-20 heading into a nonconference home game Wednesday against Nevada (18-27).
The Wildcats entered the ninth trailing 10-9 before back-to-back one-out doubles hit by Emilio Corona, and White tied the game at 10. After an intentional walk to Tony Bullard and an infield single for Garen Caulfield loaded the bases, Casagrande pinch-hit for Cameron LaLiberte.
UA coach Chip Hale mentioned the splits for Air Force reliever Ben Weber being the primary reason why he made the decision to pinch-hit with Casagrande.
βIf you look at his splits, right and left, lefties hit much higher,β Hale said. βHe is a tough guy on righties.β
Casagrande knew he just needed to get the ball in the air to the outfield, and he did just that.
βIt would have been pretty hard to not get that run in,β Casagrande said. βIβll put it that way, especially off a pitcher throwing 85-86.β
The sacrifice fly gives Casagrande 22 RBIs on the season, which is as many as he had in his first four years at Arizona combined.
βIβve been part of some really good teams here, so I guess you could say I had to wait my turn,β Casagrande said. β... It has allowed me to develop and learn and mature.β
The Wildcats got off to an early 3-0 lead off a two-run single by Kiko Romero and an RBI single by White.
Air Force was able to get two runs back off UA starter Aiden May in the second inning before posting a five-run fourth inning that included a two-run homer hit by first baseman Sam Kulasingam.
May posted his shortest outing of the season since March 7, allowing seven runs on 10 hits across 3β innings to go along with five strikeouts and one walk.
The Wildcats added three more runs in the fifth inning off an RBI single by Corona and a two-run homer by Bullard.
After pitching a quick 1-2-3 fifth inning, TJ Nichols struggled with his command in the sixth as two walks, a hit batter, two wild pitches and a double gave Air Force a 10-6 lead.
The Falcons wouldnβt score again. Chase Davis laced his third double of the afternoon in the bottom of the sixth to bring home LaLiberte and Nik McClaughry. White opened the bottom of the seventh with a triple and scored on a groundout by Bullard to cut the deficit to 10-9.
Jackson Kent, Dawson Netz and Chris Barraza kept the Wildcats in the game, combining to throw 3β scoreless innings out of the bullpen.
βDawson and Barraza worked themselves into a little bit of trouble and got out of it,β Hale said. βThatβs huge, and just the confidence to do that. Thatβs a good contact-hitting team. They showed that all three games. Jackson kind of settled everything down.β
Inside pitch
White finished the afternoon a home run shy of the cycle.
McClaughry, Davis and White all recorded 3-plus hits as UA posted 18 as a team.
Arizona hosts Nevada at 6 p.m. Wednesday in a game that will air on 1290-AM. The Wildcats then visit No. 8-ranked Stanford (31-13, 18-6 Pac-12), the conference leader, next weekend.
