Nick Quintana knew he had to change something.
After a promising freshman season that helped position him as one of the top pro prospects in his class, the Arizona Wildcats third baseman just wasn’t producing the way he expected to.
So against Washington State on Sunday, Quintana switched walk-up songs. He wore gray shoes with Arizona’s white, pinstriped pants. But more important than anything, Quintana stopped dwelling on his recent failures.
“The last week, two weeks, I’ve really been pressing, not really having much fun,” he said. “Today, I kind of just (said), ‘Forget that, forget the past. Just be free, have fun, relax.’ That’s what I tried to do, and it kind of worked.”
It definitely worked. Quintana went 3 for 5 with three RBIs, including his first home run of the season, as Arizona defeated Washington State 9-2 in front of an announced crowd of 2,910 at Hi Corbett Field.
The Wildcats (13-10, 2-4 Pac-12) took two of three from the Cougars (5-14, 1-5), piling up a season-high 18 hits and riding the right arm of junior starter Michael Flynn.
The victory was Jay Johnson’s 100th as UA coach. He is 100-55 in two-plus seasons. In typical form, he deferred all credit.
“A lot of good players playing hard,” Johnson said when asked about win No. 100. “Let’s go get 101.”
Arizona had multiple opportunities to give Johnson his 100th win Saturday night but couldn’t come through with runners on base. The Wildcats couldn’t overcome a 5-0 first-inning deficit and suffered their first home loss of the season.
Sunday was a different story. Flynn came out throwing strikes and breezed through a tone-setting 1-2-3 top of the first. With two outs in the bottom of the inning, Arizona started spraying line drives all over Hi Corbett. The Wildcats scored three runs in the first and four more in the second.
“It’s such a momentum-type deal when you’re dealing with young players,” Johnson said. “Whether we want it to be or not, it is. Confidence is a big deal for them. I think those first two innings supplied them a lot of confidence.”
Quintana is still a young player, and he played an integral role in the rally. After singling in the first, the sophomore belted the aforementioned homer to left.
The two-run shot drove in teammate Cameron Cannon — who had a team-high four hits, including a double and a triple — and gave Arizona a 7-0 lead.
To help himself stay relaxed, Quintana used a technique that has aided some of his teammates.
“Just breathing — as simple as that,” he said. “When I foul off a pitch I know I can hit, it’s not like, ‘Dang.’ It’s just, ‘OK, that just happened, oh well, wait till you get another one.’ Just keeping it very simple.
“The more I start to think, ‘I’ve gotta get a hit this at-bat,’ that’s when I start to go down. I’ve just got to be present every at-bat, every pitch. It worked for me today, and that’s what I’m going to do moving forward.”
Quintana batted .293 and had a .471 slugging percentage last season. He entered Sunday hitting .244 and slugging .329. He was 1 for 18 in Pac-12 play.
Quintana typically bats cleanup behind Alfonso Rivas III, who was 3 for 16 in conference play before Sunday. Rivas also went 3 for 5 and hit the ball well every time up.
“You have great years and great teams when your guys are guys,” Johnson said. “Those two are probably our two most talented hitters, and they showed it today.”
The offensive outburst provided Flynn with more run support than he ended up needing. The right-hander pitched a career-high 6ª innings and struck out a career-high eight batters. He allowed four hits and one walk.
“He created a lot of momentum for us today,” Johnson said.
Flynn could be seen shaking his head as he walked off mound in the top of the seventh. Although it was his best outing of the season – and came in front of about a dozen MLB scouts — Flynn didn’t like the way he ended it. After starting the seventh with a strikeout, Flynn hit a batter and allowed a double on an 0-2 pitch.
“I was a little disappointed in myself, because I know I’m better than that,” said Flynn, who improved to 3-1. “But set all that aside. We won the baseball game. That’s all that matters.”
Arizona needed to win the series after getting swept at Washington the previous weekend. As Johnson noted, the Wildcats were one good at-bat away from sweeping the Cougars.
But just as Quintana had to purge the recent past from his mind, the Cats had to move on from the disappointment of Saturday night.
“As long as we just stick with it, I know that we’re going to be completely fine as a team,” Flynn said. “It might be a little rocky here and there. We’ve had a couple hiccups. (But) those games are in the past. We’re just thinking about the next game. That’s where our heads are at right now.”
Inside pitch
- Junior catcher Cesar Salazar went 2 for 3 with a walk to extend his on-base streak to 21 games.
- Senior center fielder Cal Stevenson singled in his final at-bat to extend his hitting streak to 12 games.
- Washington State’s Ryan Ramsower, who played at Salpointe High School and Pima College, pinch-hit in the seventh inning and stroked an RBI single off reliever Gil Luna.
- UA right-handers Zach Stone and Jonathan Guardado combined for 2 2/3 scoreless innings to finish the game.
- Arizona opens a non-conference, three-game home series against Nicholls State at 6 p.m. Thursday.
