The Arizona baseball team will take a winning streak into its most important series of the season.
Despite resting several regulars, the Wildcats defeated UC Irvine 4-3 Monday night in Irvine, California. The non-conference win came a little over 24 hours after Arizona outslugged No. 5 Stanford 21-20 in 10 innings.
The UA closes the regular season with a three-game series against USC Thursday-Saturday at Hi Corbett Field. The Wildcats are striving to qualify for next week's Pac-12 Tournament, which will feature the top nine finishers in the standings. Arizona is currently ninth by virtue of a head-to-head tiebreaker with Cal, which is also 10-17 in conference play.
Monday's game was a makeup for a contest against Cal State Fullerton that was rained out in mid-March. Arizona scheduled it for RPI purposesย โ UCI came in with a 32-16 record and an RPI of 41ย โ but the Wildcats' struggles in league play essentially rendered it meaningless.
So Chip Hale rested Mac Bingham, Chase Davis and Nik McClaughry, among others. With freshmen Brendan Summerhill, Casey Hintz and Maddox Mihalakis joining classmate Mason White in the starting lineup, the Wildcats rallied from a 3-1 deficit to upend the Anteaters.
White's leadoff homer gave Arizona (28-22) a 1-0 lead. Three unearned runs off UA starter Jackson Kent in the fifth inning made it 3-1.
Arizona tied it in the seventh. Tony Bullard drove in White with a single. Bullard then scored on Kiko Romero's double.
The Wildcats took the lead in the eighth when Hintzย โ who mostly has served as a pitcher this season but started this game in center fieldย โ scored from first base on a hit-and-run single by Mihalakis.
Anthony Susac, who pitched three scoreless innings out of the bullpen, got the win. Eric Orloff threw a 1-2-3 ninth for his first career save.
Bullard went 3 for 5. White and Hintz each had two hits. Romero's RBI was his 75th of the season, the 10th-highest total in UA history.
Monday's game marked the first time since the season opener vs. Tennessee that the Wildcats won a game in which in they scored fewer than seven runs.
No. 8 seed Arizona fell to No. 1 seed UCLA 4-3 in the Pac-12 Softball Tournament quarterfinals on Thursday at Rita Hillenbrand Stadium. The Wildcats could miss the NCAA postseason for the first time since 1986.
