Arizona baseball rallies to sweep Pepperdine; midweek game vs. ASU on tap

As most Sunday games do, Arizona’s final matchup against Pepperdine presented a test.

The Wildcats laid waste to the Waves on Saturday night, walloping them 21-2 to clinch a series win in the four-game set. Arizona had a season-high 25 hits. Thirteen players had at least one hit. Would the Wildcats have anything left in the tank for Sunday?

“We talked to them last night a lot about that: ‘That game's over. We’ve got to move on,’” UA coach Chip Hale said. “But it's young guys, and sometimes you feel like, ‘Oh, it's their third starter. We're going to go out there and do the same thing.’”

The second challenge involved the schedule. A battle against archrival ASU looms Tuesday. Would Arizona give its full attention to Pepperdine after beating the Waves three straight times?

It looked iffy for a while; the Wildcats trailed by three runs entering the bottom of the sixth inning. That’s when they found their groove and scored just enough runs to secure the sweep.

Arizona rallied to defeat Pepperdine 5-3 at Hi Corbett Field. Veteran second baseman Garen Caulfield flipped the scoreboard with a three-RBI triple in the bottom of the seventh to put the Wildcats ahead.

“We can’t take anyone for granted,” said Caulfield, who went 3 for 4. “It’s hard to beat anyone four times, no matter who they are. Pepperdine’s a good team. Coach said they were going to come out and give us their best game today, and they did.”

After starting the season 0-3, Arizona (11-4) has won 11 of 12 games. The Wildcats’ only loss in that stretch came last Sunday against Tennessee, which is ranked first or second in the country depending on which poll you trust most.

“I like where we're at,” Caulfield said. “We just took four from a scrappy team. We had a good showing in Texas (3-1 road trip to Houston). We're just continuing to get 1% better every day, and that's all we can focus on. No matter who the opponent is, we're just going to treat it the same and keep it going into conference.”

The next opponent isn’t just anyone. It’s the Sun Devils, who are 12-4 after sweeping Gonzaga.

“It means a lot,” said UA reliever Garrett Hicks, a Buckeye native who earned the win Sunday to improve to 3-0. “Especially growing up in Phoenix, you're kind of (pushed) to go to the other side when you're younger; I couldn't make it down here most of the time.

“Being older, growing up and watching those games, I saw how much it meant. And playing with guys that played in it, I’ve seen how much it meant to those guys. So just kind of carrying it on, going out and competing and hopefully coming out with a W.”

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Arizona split four games against ASU last year.

Current UA freshman Smith Bailey was still in high school then. Making his fourth career start, the right-hander wasn’t quite as sharp as he’d been in the first three. Bailey walked three batters over 5⅔ innings after yielding only one base on balls in 14⅓ innings entering Sunday.

Still, Bailey had a chance to get through six innings with only one run against him. But Pepperdine’s Andrew Savage lined Bailey’s final pitch down the left field line for a two-RBI double to give the Waves a 3-0 lead.

Bailey had stranded five baserunners up to that point. He had only one 1-2-3 inning, in the fifth.

Arizona got one run back in the sixth on pinch-hitter Adonys Guzman’s sacrifice fly with the bases loaded. They were loaded again for Caulfield in the seventh. He drove the first pitch he saw from Pepperdine reliever Austin Plisinski into right-center field — a popular spot for the gap-to-gap hitter.

“That’s what I’m trying to do,” said Caulfield, who had eight RBIs in the series. “That’s my approach. Something low and hard, like Coach always talks about. The ball may not fly out of here at Hi Corbett, but I’m happy with the results.”

Hicks, Hunter Alberini and Tony Pluta combined for 3⅓ scoreless innings out of the bullpen. Pluta allowed two singles in the ninth but induced a groundout to end the game and pick up his second save.

“Like I told them after the game, this probably helps us a heck of a lot more than last night's game, because we were able to battle back,” Hale said.

Inside pitch

– It was a rough weekend for Pepperdine, which fell to 3-14. The Waves won the national championship with Andy Lopez as their coach in 1992. Pepperdine made the NCAA Tournament 20 times between 1985 and 2015. The Waves haven’t qualified since.

– Arizona’s Andrew Cain (Ironwood Ridge High School) got hit in the back of the neck by a throw in the second inning. After reaching base on an infield single, Cain tried to make it to second on Mathis Meurant’s groundout to first. The throw from first baseman Max Bernal hit a sliding Cain, who was safe on the play. Hale came out to check on Cain, who remained in the game.

– The ASU game is the Sun Devils’ only appearance in Tucson this season. The game is a “Red Out,” and the first 500 fans will receive a 2024 UA Pac-12 championship pennant. Arizona plays at ASU in a Big 12 series April 4-6.