It took until April, roughly half a season, but it finally happened: The Arizona Wildcats strung together three straight games in which all three phases of their game were on point.
Arizona hit the ball like it has all season. The Wildcats pitched better than they have all year. And they played well enough in the field to ensure that the first two elements mattered.
Arizona completed a sweep of Washington on Sunday with a 7-4 triumph in front of 2,833 fans at Hi Corbett Field. It was the Wildcats’ first Pac-12 sweep since May 2018 against UCLA and lifted their record to 16-14, 5-7.
After a seven-game losing streak capped by a disheartening 17-16 loss at rival Arizona State, Arizona is back on course. Securing an NCAA Tournament berth remains a challenge, but it’s a much more realistic possibility today than a week ago.
“I think they saw their best character this weekend,” UA coach Jay Johnson said. “We played really, really well. That shouldn’t be understated. If they can carry that forward, then we have a chance to have some success.”
Given how strong the Pac-12 is this year, any team that finishes at or above .500 in the league should have a shot at a postseason bid. Arizona still has road series to play against No. 2 Stanford and No. 7 Oregon State. Cal, which visits Tucson next weekend, is no slouch either; the Golden Bears are 17-11 thanks to a six-game winning streak.
But now a UA team featuring a boatload of newcomers knows what high-level Pac-12 baseball looks and feels like.
“Everyone did what they were supposed to do,” said catcher-first baseman Matthew Dyer, who went 4 for 4 with two runs scored and an RBI. “It finally came together.”
The Wildcats’ seven runs gave them 30 for the series, or 10 per game — right in line with their season average of 9.4. Arizona allowed only nine runs in the series — by far its lowest total in a three-game set. In every previous three-game series this season, the Wildcats had surrendered nine or more runs in at least one game.
“I give Coach Lawn (Dave Lawn, the pitching coach) a lot of credit this week for doing some things that he did to get them prepared,” Johnson said. “We’re really keeping it simple. This group that pitched this weekend did a really good job of it.”
Following the lead of Randy Labaut and Quinn Flanagan, junior left-hander Andrew Nardi allowed three hits and struck out a career-high 10 batters in 5⅔ innings. Nardi’s stuff was almost too good at times; he yielded only three singles but hit four batters and threw four wild pitches.
Nardi was one pitch away from walking off the field with a 6-1 lead through six innings. But his 1-2 slider to Jonathan Schiffer struck the right-handed batter’s right foot. A single scored a run, and a walk led to a pitching change.
Johnson summoned right-hander Vince Vannelle, who had pitched phenomenally in relief Friday: three hitless innings to earn his first career save. Vannelle seemed fatigued, however. After a four-pitch walk that plated another run and a first-pitch ball to the next hitter, Johnson lifted Vannelle for lefty Avery Weems.
Weems shut down the rally. Kaiser Weiss grounded out to second base to end the inning.
Weems surrendered a solo home run to Nick Kahle, the Huskies’ star catcher, in the seventh and back-to-back singles to lead off the eighth. That’s when Arizona’s defense made its imprint.
With runners on first and second, Nick Roberts hit a grounder to short. Dayton Dooney flipped the ball to Cameron Cannon. With Ben Baird bearing down on him, Cannon threw low and wide of first. Freshman Austin Wells made a beautiful backhanded pick while keep his toes on the base. The next hitter, Braiden Ward, struck out swinging.
“It was awesome,” said Cannon, who went 3 for 4 with a run and an RBI. “I didn’t get a chance to see it. The runner kinda slid into me. Gotta go back and look at it – get him dinner tonight or something.”
Weems worked around an error in the ninth – Arizona’s second of the game, but only its second of the series — to record his first save. Weems allowed just one run, on Kahle’s homer, in 3 ⅓ innings. It was the only run the Wildcats’ beleaguered bullpen yielded in 8⅓ innings against the Huskies.
“That’s really been an area of the team that needs to get better,” Johnson said. “We were gonna have to hold serve with those guys because they don’t give you very much out of the pen.”
Washington (14-12, 5-7) entered the series as the better-pitching, better-fielding side. Arizona flipped that script, leading to a much more joyful postgame scene than the previous Sunday, when Johnson scolded his squad for about an hour.
“A little more uplifting,” Cannon said in the understatement of the day. “We’re doing the best we can to separate the last half from this half. Kinda going with a fresh start. I think it’s going well so far.”
Inside pitch
- Dyer has a seven-game hitting streak during which he has gone 19 for 32, raising his average to .396. He has done it despite a slight fracture in his left hand suffered in early March. Dyer’s right hand was struck by a foul tip Friday, and he got hit by a pitch in the left shoulder Sunday.
- Arizona’s Nick Quintana and Justin Wylie each had two RBIs Sunday and four for the series.
- The Wildcats’ seven runs matched their lowest total in any of their 16 victories. They have scored eight or more runs in 13 of 16 wins. They are 0-10 when scoring six runs or fewer.
- Washington led 1-0 after a half-inning Sunday — its only lead of the series. UA scored twice in the second to erase the deficit.
- Arizona visits Grand Canyon on Tuesday before hosting Cal for three games Friday-Sunday.
