Chandler Murphy first felt the issue in his right forearm during fall ball. The best course of action was to shut things down.
So began a long journey of rest and rehabilitation. By Murphy’s estimate, he went about four months without throwing a truly meaningful pitch.
Eventually, the pain subsided and the Arizona right-hander could get back to doing what he does best. It was slow going at first. But Murphy kept building. On Sunday against Washington State — when his team really needed him — Murphy delivered his best and longest outing of the season.
Murphy threw five scoreless innings as No. 10 Arizona defeated WSU 5-2 in front of an announced crowd of 2,399 at Hi Corbett Field. The win enabled the Wildcats (22-10, 10-5 Pac-12) to avoid what would have been a stunning sweep against the last-place Cougars (12-19, 4-11). It also halted Arizona’s overall three-game losing streak.
“I felt great today,” said Murphy, who notched his first victory of the season in his fifth start. “I feel more comfortable on the mound now, getting back into the swing of things.”
Bullpen sessions, flat-ground catch, even live at-bats — none of it can simulate the intensity of a real game, Murphy said. The stakes were especially high Sunday with the Wildcats having lost the previous two nights following a midweek setback at Arizona State.
Murphy said he wasn’t thinking about his outing in that context, though.
“It’s a Sunday game,” said the third-year sophomore, who went 7-0 last season. “Our coaches tell us that Sunday games are important. You're trying to sweep somebody, you're trying to keep from being swept and you're trying to win a series sometimes.
“I'm ready to compete and get out there. The three losses before were not in my head at all.”
The win enabled Arizona to remain on a .667 pace halfway through the Pac-12 schedule. The Wildcats are one game ahead of last year’s team, which was 9-6 at the midpoint of the conference slate. The 2021 Cats went on to win the Pac-12 regular-season championship. The ’22 squad is tied with Oregon State atop the standings.
Salvaging something from an otherwise lost weekend was a significant achievement with a five-game road trip to Utah and Creighton looming.
“It’s huge,” UA coach Chip Hale said. “We talk about, ‘Hey, it's just one game.’ But it's not easy to spin it around after two tough losses. So it was a big game.”
Murphy yielded five hits and struck out two batters. Critically, he didn’t issue a walk.
Arizona played one of its cleanest games of the season. The pitching staff surrendered only two free bases: one walk and one hit batsman. The UA defense committed only one error.
The Wildcats had three errors or five-plus walks in each of the previous three games. In Saturday’s loss, it was both.
“We just didn't play good baseball,” Hale said. “So the message, basically, was just play better baseball.”
Another common theme during the losing streak: squandering leads. Arizona had the advantage in all three games at some point. The Wildcats were able to finish off the Cougars with relative ease.
After Murphy threw his 70th pitch to end the top of the fifth inning — he’s still on a pitch count; his max Sunday was 75 — freshman right-hander Anthony Susac delivered 2 2/3 innings of one-hit, one-run relief. Trevor Long pitched a scoreless ninth to notch his second save.
Long, a second-year right-hander, has emerged as Arizona’s most effective reliever. Sunday’s outing lowered his ERA to a team-best 1.04.
A year ago, Long took one for the team in a series-opening loss to WSU in Pullman. Having fallen behind 10-0 in the second, the Wildcats needed innings. Long gave them four. He allowed nine runs on 12 hits. He wouldn’t pitch again during the ’21 season.
“I think it's just been a lot of hard work and confidence,” Long said. “I believe completely in myself right now. I think that when I'm on the mound, I can get anybody out at any time.
“Another thing that changed ... this year I'm really just trusting my defense. I'm not worried about striking people out. I'm worried about throwing it in the strike zone, letting them hit it and letting my defense get the out.”
Long didn’t strike out any Cougars on Sunday. The outs came on two fly balls to center field and a grounder to third. He worked around a one-out single.
What’s the key to closing out a game?
“It's very simple: If we play clean,” Hale said. “If we allow our defenders to play, and they make plays, and we don't give them free passes, we usually are in pretty good shape.”
Arizona’s offense was good enough on a day when the wind was blowing in at 12-15 mph. The Wildcats drew four walks against WSU starter McKabe Cottrell. They pushed two runs across on groundouts. They had only two extra-base hits, including Daniel Susac’s solo home run to left field. It was the sophomore catcher’s seventh homer of the season. He went 2 for 4 to lift his average to a team-best .392.
Hale tinkered with Arizona’s lineup, inserting Cameron LaLiberte at DH and starting Tyler Casagrande in left field. Chase Davis, who was 0 for 8 in the first two games of the series, got the day off.
“I just told the guys, ‘Hey, we're gonna look at some people,’ ” Hale said. “ ‘We want to get some offense going. We want to get better defense. So we're gonna move some guys around and see how it looks.’
“LaLa (LaLiberte) has been really good in our intrasquad games, especially against left-handed pitchers. So he gave us a little spark today, had some good at-bats, and it was good to see.
LaLiberte went 1 for 3 with a double and a walk. He scored two runs.
Arizona’s three-game losing streak was its longest of the season and matched its longest from 2021. That team then won 10 in a row.
Hale views every game as a “separate entity,” and the Wildcats are sticking to that approach. It helped them immensely Sunday.
“Just be you,” Long said. “Don't press about past games. Don't think about anything that you did yesterday or the day before. Think about what's going on right now, what's going on in the moment, and do what you do.”
Inside pitch
- Arizona hosts New Mexico State on Tuesday before a three-game series at Utah that runs Thursday-Saturday. The Wildcats then will face Creighton next Monday and Tuesday at Charles Schwab Field Omaha, home of the College World Series.
- Hale said he is hopeful that right-hander Dawson Netz will be able to start against the Aggies. Netz was scratched from his scheduled start last Sunday at Washington and didn’t pitch vs. WSU because of an arm issue.
- UA pitchers struck out only three batters, a season low. Arizona walked only one hitter for the fifth time. The Wildcats did not issue a walk in their 3-2 win over Stanford on March 19.
- Arizona is 10-1 when allowing two or fewer walks. The Wildcats are 5-9 when issuing five or more walks.
- Arizona entered the weekend 10th in RPI. The Wildcats fell to 33rd after dropping two of three vs. the Cougars, per WarrenNolan.com.
