10-0 at home!
Through the first five innings of its first Big 12 Conference game, Arizona put eight runners on base and actually had two hits with men in scoring position. Yet the scoreboard showed the Wildcats losing 3-0 to Cincinnati.
One frame later and the UA was on its way to a sixth straight win and 13th in the last 14 games.
Arizona scored eight runs in the bottom of the 6th to beat Cincinnati 8-3 on Friday night at Hi Corbett Field, improving to 10-0 at home this season.
Seven of the runs came with two outs in the 6th, as Arizona had five of its 10 hits with two out. That included a single by Mason White in the bottom of the 5th that would have scored a run had it not hit baserunner Aaron Walton in the basepath, ending that inning.
That was in addition to loading the bases earlier in the 5th, as well as in the 4th, without scoring.
“It just was weird, weird stuff, and we just didn’t play particularly well,” UA coach Chip Hale said. “We just didn’t play Wildcat baseball until you get into that sixth inning.”
Arizona sent 12 men to the plate in the 6th, with Tommy Splaine’s 1-out RBI single cutting the Bearcats’ lead to 3-1. A single by Mathis Meurant loaded the bases for TJ Adams, who struck out, and then Brendan Summerhill hit a slow bouncer to the right side that Cincinnati first baseman Tommy O’Connor ranged to his right to field.
Pitcher Max Bergmann ran over to cover first but Summerhill beat him to the bag, bringing in one run, and a second scored after Bergman dropped the ball to tie it at 3.
The next two batters walked, including White on four pitches against reliever Adam Buczkowski to plate the winning run. That set the stage for Garen Caulfield, who lifted one high to left that hit just over the red line for a grand slam.
“That inning was contagious,” said Caulfield, who has 12 RBI during Arizona’s 6-game win streak. “I actually led off that inning with an out, so I didn’t want to make the first and third out there.”
That Arizona had a chance to make a comeback was due to another strong relief outing from Casey Hintz, who came on in the 4th after for Collin McKinney and threw 2.1 scoreless innings to improve to 4-0. It wasn’t Hintz’s best performance, as he walked two and hit a batter, but managed to escape two bases-loaded situations.
Hintz struck out Jack Natili on three pitches to end the 4th, then in the 6th allowed two singles and walked Natili before striking out O’Connor.
“Every game is keep the score where it’s at,” Hintz said. “Put up zeroes so the offense can come back.”
Garrett Hicks came on and threw the final three innings, the first time this season someone other than McKinney or Hintz pitched on Friday, and struck out four with no hits allowed to earn the save.
Arizona walked a season-high six batters and hit four but still managed to give up five or fewer runs for the ninth straight game. It was also the fourth time the Wildcats have won a game when trailing in the 6th inning or later.
“They keep fighting, that’s the good thing,” Hale said. “And listen, if we continue not to come out and be ready to go best we can, we’re gonna get burned. So we know that. They know that, and we’re just gonna keep trying to play the best nine innings we can. We’d just like to play a full nine.”