Arizona baseball outlasts West Virginia in 16 innings for 10th straight win

Wildcats struck out a school-record 29 Mountaineers!

Arizona and West Virginia are scheduled for three games this weekend in Morgantown, but on Friday night they almost played the equivalent of two contests.

A 2-out, 2-run single by Richie Morales gave the Wildcats a 6-4 win over the Mountaineers in 16 innings, extending their win streak to 10 games.

Arizona (17-4, 4-0 Big 12) led 4-0 in the 3^rd inning but then went silent at the plate, with West Virginia (18-2, 1-1) forcing extras by scoring once in the bottom of the 9^th against closer Tony Pluta, who had not allowed a run this season. The Wildcats had only one inning with a runner in scoring position from the 5^th through 15^th innings before loading the bases in the 16^th.

Morales, who started at 2^nd for Garen Caulfield, who did not play for unspecified reasons, had been 0 for 7 with six strikeouts before his go-ahead hit on a 3-2 pitch.

Matthew Martinez then came on to close it out in the bottom of the 16^th, the last of seven UA pitchers. He struck out two, putting the finishing touches on a school-record 29 strikeouts, eight more than the previous record. They also walked 10 batters, four by starter Collin McKinney in 4.2 innings.

Arizona whiffed 21 times itself, which tied the school record, and had 12 hits with one from every starter. TJ Adams had a 2-run single in the 2^nd that put the UA up early, then the Wildcats scored twice in the 3^rd on a fielding error and an RBI single by Brendan Summerhill.

After Pluta gave up the lead and then threw a scoreless 10^th, relievers Hunter Alberini, Julian Tonghini and Martinez combined to strike out 14 over the final six frames.

Arizona and West Virginia play the second game of the series Saturday at 1 p.m. PT, with righty Owen Kramkowski starting for the Wildcats.