Saturday nights are alright for scoring at Hi Corbett Field.
A week after putting up 21 in a blowout of Pepperdine, Arizona scored two touchdowns’ worth of runs in a 14-2 win over Cincinnati. It was the seventh straight win for the Wildcats (14-4, 2-0 Big 12) and improved their home record to 11-0.
Arizona scored four runs in the bottom of the 1st and eight in the 2nd to quickly turn the middle game of the series into a laugher. That’s compared to Friday night when it trailed 3-0 after five innings before scoring eight times in the 6th.
“I think we came out relentless and had really good at-bats,” UA coach Chip Hale said.
The UA used its team speed to force the issue early and often against the Bearcats (11-8, 0-2), who committed three errors and had several other bad throws. Brendan Summerhill led off the bottom of the 1st with a single, then Aaron Walton’s grounder to third base forced a bad throw to second to try and start a double play and the relay to first got past the bag.
Summerhill then scored on a fielder’s choice by Mason White, drawing a bad throw home. The Wildcats would score three more times on a sacrifice fly, a double and a single.
The 2nd would see the UA send 13 to the plate, a rally started by TJ Adams just barely missing a home run to center but settling for a triple. He scored on an RBI single by Summerhill, who later in the inning would drive in two with a triple.
“We’re still aggressive, always looking to take another base, but I think we’ve kind of realized we don’t maybe necessarily need to steal bases to get an extra base,” said Summerhill, who was 4 for 5 with three RBI and was a home shy of the cycle.
That long second resulted in UA starter Owen Kramkowski having to sit for a while before coming out for his third inning of work, and the delay may have contributed to him issuing his first walk of the season. The sophomore right-hander walked two in five innings, striking out seven and allowing one earned run to improve to 3-1.
“It’s tough to pitch in those situations,” Hale said. “I think Kramkowski did a good job of sitting there for a long time.”
Arizona locked up its first Big 12 series and can go for the sweep Sunday at 11 a.m. PT, with freshman righty Smith Bailey on the mound. The UA has had two 7-game win streaks this season, something it last did in 2021 (both were 10 games) en route to making the College World Series.