Arizona’s not-so-long-ago skid has made way to a bit of momentum in recent days, and the Wildcats are hoping to carry that all the way to Pullman, Washington.
After defeating New Mexico State 14-2 on Tuesday, Arizona (17-13, 5-10 Pac-12) will take a three-game winning streak into this weekend for a three-game series against Washington State (19-12, 5-9).
In the win over the Aggies Tuesday — that victory came on the heels of back-to-back home wins over Washington last weekend to end a 10-game conference losing streak — Nevada transfer Cam Walty made his first start of the season for the Wildcats. He tossed five one-hit innings against NMUS before Arizona coach Chip Hale emptied out the bullpen utilizing the majority of his roster’s top relievers.
“At this point in the season, think about a basketball game and at some point the coach shortens his bench,” Hale said. “He uses eight guys, he uses nine guys or he uses seven guys. We’re at the point with our pitchers now where we’re going to run with these guys.”
Hale mentioned Dawson Netz, Trevor Long, Chris Barazza, Eric Orloff and Derek Drees as the primary relievers who he expects to utilize the rest of the season.
Cam Walty, pictured pitching in 2021 against Air Force while enrolled at Nevada, transferred to Arizona ahead of the 2023 season. Walty should feel right at home at Hi Corbett Field. His best career start — a three-hit, complete-game shutout at Arizona with Nevada — came April 30, 2022. He followed that up Tuesday with a one-hit gem in five innings of work in his first start for the Wildcats, also at Hi Corbett.
Walty, who started in Arizona’s Meet the Team event before the season, made just his fifth appearance of the season as oblique tightness sidelined him earlier in the year. He said following his start Tuesday, it was as close to 100% healthy that he had been all season.
He has thrown 14 straight shutout innings in his career at Hi Corbett after throwing a complete game shutout for Nevada against the Wildcats last season.
Following their Pac-12 losing streak, the Wildcats have little room for error the rest of the regular season if they want to make a run at the postseason. That starts this weekend against the Cougars. Arizona is 1-6 this season in road games.
“I think we’ve competed fine,” Hale said. “I think that’s the one thing about this whole ordeal is everybody is so uptight about the losses, and you’re judged by your wins and losses in sports. I thought we were playing fine. We were playing good baseball. We weren’t getting the big hit we needed to or the big pitch we needed to.
“We kind of flipped it a little bit against Washington, we had a good night (Tuesday) and we have to carry that good feeling and keep it going,” he added.
Washington State got off to a strong start this season in non-conference play, but like Arizona, they have struggled in conference play. That is shown not just with their record but also by scoring the second-fewest runs (61) in Pac-12 play.
“Their hitters are probably just like ours were when we were struggling,” Hale said. “They’re in a little bit of a funk. As we saw, it only takes one game to get out of it, so we have to hold them down.”
With a winning streak also comes more confidence among the players in the clubhouse. That is what freshman Mason White noticed, who picked up two hits in Tuesday’s win and is currently on a six-game hitting streak.
“If a pitcher gets down, the offense can pick them up,” White said. “If the offense is getting shut out a little bit, the pitcher is going to go out there and have an attitude and get guys out. It’s all becoming more of a team thing, so I think our team aspect is really improving the last month.”
Inside pitch
Hale said that Walty will be available to pitch out of the bullpen in Pullman. If he doesn’t make an appearance, he’ll be a candidate to start next week against Arizona State.
Anthony Susac came out of the bullpen on Tuesday. Hale said he won’t start this weekend but will come out of the bullpen against the Cougars. Hale also wouldn’t commit to TJ Nichols rejoining the starting rotation, despite the former Friday-night starter throwing four shutout innings in relief last week against Washington.
Kiko Romero leads the Pac-12 with 42 RBIs. Mac Bingham isn’t far behind, sitting No. 3 in the conference with 37.
Arizona as a team leads the Pac-12 with 83 doubles. It is second only behind ASU with 337 hits.
Baseball was once America’s favorite sport and while it’s fallen in popularity in recent years a global crisis might actually make it more exciting moving forward. According to researchers from Dartmouth College, rising global temperatures might just be leading to more epic home runs.
