Chip Hale knew the vibe at Hi Corbett Field wouldn’t be the same for a Thursday-night game against Nevada as it was for Arizona State last weekend. Making matters worse, a cold is running through the Arizona clubhouse right now.
“Some of them are trying to yell and scream,” Hale said, “but nothing's coming out.”
Coming off a series win over ASU and a decisive victory at New Mexico State, Arizona started sluggishly against Nevada. But the Wildcats remained patient, found their form and rallied for a walk-off victory.
Down three runs early, Arizona came back to defeat Nevada 6-5 in the opener of a four-game series. Chase Davis, the hero of the ASU opener, drove in the winning run via a bases-loaded walk.
“We're gonna have to win some games like this,” Hale said. “You win ugly sometimes. But you gotta give them credit. They came out, and they were ready to play. They jumped all over us.”
The Wolf Pack (21-18), one of the top offensive teams in the nation, put up three runs in the second inning and led 4-1 through five. But the Wildcats (30-13) kept battling, took the lead in the seventh and won it in the ninth.
“I thought we really did well in the last portion of the game,” said shortstop Nik McClaughry, who drew a one-out walk in the bottom of the ninth and scored the winning run. “Our at-bats were really good. We kind of got out of plan, chasing pitches ... at the beginning of the game. Just rushed a little bit. Then towards the end we did pretty good on some of their better pitchers.”
Right-hander Chandler Murphy got the start for Arizona after throwing only 49 pitches Saturday, and he pitched better than his final line suggests.
Murphy was charged with four runs on nine hits in 5 2/3 innings. Two hits were infield singles. One was a blooper. Another was a line drive that diving center fielder Mac Bingham initially appeared to catch, only to have the ball pop out of his glove.
Murphy struck out only one batter but didn’t walk any. His fastball consistently registered in the low 90s.
Considering that Murphy entered Thursday with a 9.50 ERA – and pitched 5 2/3 innings in his past two outings combined – Thursday’s performance has to be considered a positive step.
“We made a lot of mistakes – baserunning mistakes, some defensive mistakes – but Chandler did a good job of keeping us in the game,” Hale said. “They did a good job of battling and putting the ball in play like we knew they would; they’re a good offensive team.”
Arizona’s offense started sluggishly against a pitching staff that entered Thursday with a 6.78 ERA. The Wildcats twice had runners on first and third with no outs and came away with only one run each time.
Arizona’s baserunning didn’t help. Tanner O’Tremba and McClaughry – two of the Wildcats’ headiest runners – each got picked off.
The bottom of the seventh seemed to bring more of the same. After Tony Bullard’s solo home run made it 4-3, Cameron LaLiberte got doubled off on a lineout to shortstop.
Arizona then put together a two-out rally to take the lead. Consecutive hits by McClaughry, O’Tremba and Daniel Susac plated a pair of runs.
Nevada tied the score in the top of the eighth, scoring an unearned run off Quinn Flanagan.
The McClaughry-O’Tremba combo then struck again in the ninth. O’Tremba followed McClaughry’s walk with a double to left. With runners on second and third, Nevada elected to walk Susac.
Davis fouled off four pitches against Nevada right-hander Kade Morris before taking the eighth pitch of the at-bat for the walk-off walk.
Inside pitch
O’Tremba went 4 for 4 with three doubles to raise his team-leading batting average to .389. O’Tremba is 14 for 24 (.583) in his past five games.
The top four hitters in Arizona’s lineup – McClaughry, O’Tremba, Susac and Davis – combined to go 9 for 12 with six walks and zero strikeouts.
UA right-hander Trevor Long pitched a hitless ninth inning to improve to 4-0. Long hasn’t allowed a run in his past 11 outings, and his ERA fell to 0.70.
Right-hander TJ Nichols (5-2, 4.31 ERA) is scheduled to start for Arizona on Friday. He will face righty Peyton Stumbo (4-1, 6.60).
