It took nearly the first two months of the season, but the Arizona Wildcats baseball team has hit its first true rough patch.
Arizona (22-9, 9-5 Pac-12) committed three errors and gave away a 5-2 lead to Washington State on Saturday night at Hi Corbett Field, dropping a season-high third consecutive game. The 6-5 defeat also meant the Wildcats will not be able to win the weekend series against the last-place Cougars.
“We’re in a weird rut right now,” Wildcats coach Chip Hale said. “We’re just not playing very good baseball, obviously on the defensive side but pitching as well.”
Twenty-four hours ago, Arizona could at least hang its hat on an error-free night in an 11-5 loss. It could not make the same claim in the second game of the series as three errors led to three unearned runs, one of which was the game-tying run in the eighth.
Clinging to a 5-4 lead, Arizona left-handed relief pitcher Eric Orloff appeared to get the leadoff batter to pop-up just behind third base, but the ball swirled in the air of a breezy Hi Corbett and third baseman Tony Bullard was unable to track it down cleanly, allowing the runner to get to second base.
Chris Barraza, the right-handed thrower, was brought in next and struck out the first batter he faced before giving up the game-tying single on a 3-2 pitch. Barraza walked the next batter on four straight pitches and was removed in favor of Holden Christian, who was able to work out of the jam.
Still pitching in the ninth, Christain had runners on first and third with two outs. Hale went out to give a quick mound visit to talk about the upcoming at-bat over, and Christian got the first two strikes before allowing a go-ahead RBI single to WSU’s Kyle Russell.
Arizona got the tying run on first in the bottom of the ninth but couldn’t do anything with it as Daniel Susac flew out to center to end the game.
“Bad games happen; bad innings happen,” Susac said.
The Cougars (12-18, 4-10) opened the game with a 2-0 lead. Left-hander Garrett Irvin drew the start for the Wildcats, pitching a scoreless first. With a runner on third and one out in the second inning, WSU scored on a dropped third strike play in which a runner on third broke home on Susac’s throw to first and the runner avoided the tag by Susac on the return throw to home.
The Wildcats later broke through in the fourth inning, scoring all five of their runs with two outs.
After Chase Davis and Noah Turley were retired for the first two outs, the Wildcats loaded the bases on consecutive singles followed by a four-pitch walk to Garen Caulfield.
The inning seemed all but over as Nik McClaughry hit a weak ground ball to short but the throw to second was off target and trickled into right field allowing two runners to score. The Wildcats took advantage of the miscue with three straight RBI singles — all with two outs — to go up 5-2.
The Cougars made Irvin work in the fifth after Arizona grabbed the lead. The first three batters singled and a run scored to make it 5-3. A strikeout followed by a sacrifice fly made it 5-4 and Irving preserved the lead by getting WSU catcher Jake Meyer to fly out.
Irvin’s final line ended with six innings, seven hits, two earned runs, three walks and three strikeouts. It was the lefty’s fifth straight game with six innings pitched and two or fewer earned runs allowed. Though Hale said afterwards it wasn’t Irvin’s cleanest outing.
“Didn’t have his best stuff tonight, too many walks,” Hale said.
UA’s 1-2-3 hitters provided most of the offense as Mac Bingham, Susac and Tanner O’Tremba combined for six of UA’s nine hits and three RBIs.
The Wildcats will look to snap their three-game losing skid Sunday at noon while also trying to avoid being swept for the first time this season.
