May 29, 2011
Arizona 8, Washington 2 (Box Score) | Arizona Overall Stats (PDF)
TUCSON, Ariz. - The Arizona baseball team secured a series sweep of visiting Washington with an 8-2 victory on Sunday afternoon at Kindall Field/Sancet Stadium as each school closed its respective regular season schedule.
Arizona finishes the regular season with a 36-19 overall record and a 15-12 mark in Pac-10 Conference play, good enough for a fourth-place finish. The Wildcats won nine of their last 12 conference games and 12 of their last 15 games overall to close the season with their best regular season record since 2008. Each of the club's final three losses came by a one-run margin.
The Wildcats are poised to make their second straight postseason appearance and their seventh in the last nine season. The 2011 NCAA Division I Baseball Championship 64-team field, with first-round regional pairings and site assignments, will be revealed in a live, half-hour telecast on ESPN at 12:30 p.m. (ET), Monday, May 30.
Sunday's regular season finale saw the Wildcats answer an early one-run deficit with a five-run second inning to claim a 5-1 lead. From there, the Wildcats added one more in the fourth frame and two in the fifth and cruised behind a strong performance by the bullpen duo of Bryce Badilla and Tyler Hale, who combined for five innings of shutout baseball.
Washington (17-37. 6-21 Pac-10) took the early lead with a run on three hits in the top of the second off UA starter Konner Wade. In the bottom of the second inning, Bobby Rinard doubled to left field and scored one out later on an RBI single by Alex Mejia to tie the game at 1-1.
Two defensive errors by the Huskies prolonged the inning and allowed the Wildcats to tack on four more runs. Cole Frenzel delivered a run-scoring single and Robert Refsnyder blasted a two-run double to give the Wildcats a comfortable 5-1 lead in the early going.
After Washington's Ryan Wiggins hit a solo home run to lead off the top of the fourth inning, Arizona answered with a run in the home half of the inning. Seth Mejias-Brean was hit by a pitch and advanced to second on a bunt by Joey Rickard. Frenzel followed with his second RBI single of the game to push the lead to 6-2.
In the fifth inning, the Wildcats tallied a pair of runs after Rinard again hit a lead off double. Rinard scored on an error after a sharp grounder hit by Jacob Meskin scooted through the legs of second baseman Reggie Jones. Meskin later scored on an RBI single by Bryce Ortega to set the score at its eventual final, 8-2.
Wade pitched just four-plus innings, but only allowed two runs on eight hits. In the no-decision effort, Wade struck out four and issued zero walks.
Bandilla earned the victory out of the bullpen with 3.2 innings of relief. The left-hander, who improved to 5-3 on the season, gave up just two hits to go with three strike outs and zero walks. Tyler Hale finished the final 1.1 innings on the mound, yielding a hit and a walk to go with two strikeouts.
Defensively, Arizona capped a stellar weekend in the field. The Wildcats committed just two errors over the three games and turned a combined nine double plays.
Rinard again highlighted the offensive attack with a three-hit day at the plate to go with two runs scored. The senior outfielder combined to hit 8-for-10 with five runs scored and three RBI. He hit two doubles on Sunday and collected his first career home run on Friday night.
The series sweep completed a strong finish to the season for the Wildcats, who sat at 24-26 and 6-9 in Pac-10 play in late April. However, Arizona finished strong, winning 12 of its final 15 games, thanks to strong play in all pases.
Over the final 15 games, the Wildcats hit .328 as a team and outscored opponents 116-43. On the mound, the pitching staff turned in a 2.69 ERA to go with 91 strikeouts against 31 walks. Defensively, the club committed only nine errors and turned 21 double plays.
On Sunday, the NCAA announced that Pac-10 schools UCLA, Oregon State and Arizona State will be three of the 16 NCAA regional hosts. That leaves 13 other potential destinations for the Wildcats. The full list of 16 regional sites are listed below:
City (Host Institution)
Atlanta, Ga. (Georgia Tech)
Austin, Texas (Texas)
Fullerton, Calif. (Cal State Fullerton)
Chapel Hill, N.C. (North Carolina)
Charlottesville, Va. (Virginia)
Clemson, S.C. (Clemson)
College Station, Texas (Texas A&M)
Columbia, S.C. (South Carolina)
Corvallis, Ore. (Oregon State)
Fort Worth, Texas (TCU)
Gainesville, Fla. (Florida)
Houston, Texas (Rice)
Los Angeles, Calif. (UCLA)
Nashville, Tenn. (Vanderbilt)
Tallahassee, Fla. (Florida State)
Tempe, Ariz. (Arizona State)
