Jay Johnson entered the interview room at the Arizona baseball offices late Tuesday night and exhaled.
He wasnโt feeling any relief. More like incredulity.
Johnsonโs team is struggling mentally and fundamentally right now. The UA lost for the second time in three games Tuesday, falling 9-5 to Michigan State at Hi Corbett Field.
It isnโt so much that the Wildcats are losing but how theyโre losing. They committed six errors against the Spartans, who were 1-9 entering the game. Arizona has made 14 errors in its past three games, resulting in 19 unearned runs.
โYouโre not going to win a Division I baseball game allowing those things,โ Johnson said. โThey trained their rear ends off yesterday. It was of high quality. I liked the tempo of the game. I liked everything about it until really the seventh inning.โ
Arizona committed four errors in the top of the seventh. A 4-1 lead turned into a 9-4 deficit.
โIโve very rarely been part of a game where Iโve seen the wheels spin off like that,โ Johnson said. โItโs a new day tomorrow.โ
The Wildcats return to action Friday. They have work to do in the meantime.
Arizona got a good enough pitching performance from starter Andrew Nardi, who showed up at Hi Corbett with a different look. Sensing the need for a change after some frustrating outings, Nardi cut off his long, curly, dark-brown locks.
The haircut suited him. After an adventurous first inning, the junior left-hander pitched well enough to win against visiting Michigan State.
Nardi, who entered the season as Arizonaโs No. 2 starter, dug a hole for himself in the top of the first. He then pitched his way out of it.
A single and a pair of walks โ the second after an 0-2 count โ loaded the bases with two outs. Nardi ended the threat by freezing Bailey Peterson with a fastball.
Nardi retired the next six batters and allowed just one run over the following five innings โ an unearned run in the sixth. That hasnโt been an uncommon occurrence for Arizona of late.
The Wildcats entered Tuesday at the bottom of the Pac-12 with a .957 fielding percentage. They had made a league-high 19 errors and had allowed a league-worst 20 unearned runs. To put the latter in some context: Oregon State has yet to allow an unearned run this season.
Arizona made a huge push to improve its defense last season. Assistant coach Sergio Brown created the hashtag #977 to represent the teamโs goal of breaking the school record for fielding percentage. The Wildcats came close, finishing with a .975 mark.
They were faring OK in the field until this past weekend, when misplays nearly cost them the series against Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Arizona committed four errors in each of the final two games, leading to 13 unearned runs. The Wildcats wouldnโt have needed a miraculous five-run rally in the ninth Sunday if right fielder Tyler Casagrande hadnโt dropped the would-be inning-ending fly ball in the eighth.
Incredibly, Arizonaโs defense went from bad to worse Tuesday. Leading 4-1, the Wildcats surrendered eight runs in the seventh โ with only one of them earned. Shortstop Cameron Cannon committed a pair of errors, giving him three for the game and a team-high nine for the season. He made seven all of last year.
Third baseman Nick Quintana then let a ball go through his legs. Reliever Zach Sherman fired a ball into center field.
โI just think our mentality isnโt where it used to be or where it could be,โ said Quintana, who took extra grounders after Johnson's 15-plus-minute postgame talk to the team. โI wouldnโt say the intent is always there 100 percent of the time.
โIt is a little frustrating. When we do make an error, we have to get over it and get to the next one, because baseball is a weird sport. The ballโs going to find you again.โ
It seemed impossible that Arizona could make four errors for a third straight game. The Wildcats matched that total in one inning. Their season fielding percentage dropped to .948.
โItโs been as bad a defensive three games as I can remember,โ Johnson said. โAgain, thereโs nothing you do but continue to go to work on it, which we will do. We are not going to get negative or crush these guys.
โThis is our team that we have right now. Itโs not playing great. Thereโs only one way that you handle that. Weโre going to do everything we can to get them in a better frame of mind and then train them to improve.โ
Inside pitch
- Arizona suffered its third defeat in five games to start a 13-game homestand. The Wildcats are 3-5 since starting 5-0.
- MSU center fielder Danny Gleaves robbed Quintana of an extra-base hit with a running catch in the bottom of the sixth. Gleaves smacked into the wall near the 410 sign in left-center field and left the game with an apparent right-knee injury.
- Arizona hosts a three-game series Friday-Sunday against College of Charleston. The Cougars are 9-3 and had an RPI of 60 entering Tuesday.
