March 6, 2012
Arizona 6, UC Davis 0 (Box Score)
TUCSON, Ariz. - Lucas Long and Stephen Manthei combined to throw a six-hit shutout, the offense rapped out 12 hits and the defense played another errorless game as No. 7 Arizona dispatched visiting UC Davis, 6-0, in the first of a two-game mid-week series on Tuesday night at Hi Corbett Field.
Long (2-0) was impressive in his first career start, turning in 6.2 shutout innings to earn his first win as a starter. The freshman from Minneapolis, Minn., scattered six hits and did not walk a batter as he racked up a career-high seven strikeouts. He turned the game over to Manthei with two outs in the seventh inning.
Manthei entered with a pair of runners on board, but induced a soft groundball to escape and keep the shutout in tact heading to the final two innings. In 2.1 innings of relief, Manthei did not allow a runner to reach base and registered a pair of strikeouts.
Arizona (9-2) was held scoreless over the first three innings by Aggies' starter Evan Wolf, who retired the first eight batters he faced. But the Wildcats scratched across single runs in the fourth and fifth innings to take a 2-0 lead, before opening up the game in the sixth frame.
The Wildcats broke the scoreless game in the bottom of the fourth when Trent Gilbert drove in Johnny Field with an RBI double. An inning later, Joseph Maggi's singled up the middle past a drawn-in infield to drive in Riley Moore for the second run.
Wolf surrendered a leadoff double to Robert Refsnyder in the sixth inning, and after a walk to Field, was lifted in favor of reliever Craig Lanza. Seth Mejias-Brean lined a triple off Lanza down the right field line to plate two more runs for the Wildcats. Gilbert then picked up his second RBI with a run-scoring single that pushed UA's lead to 5-0.
The Wildcats capped the scoring with a final run in the bottom of the seventh. Joey Rickard led off with a single and quickly stole second base. Rickard moved to third on Alex Mejia's single through the left side and scored on Refsnyder's single up the middle.
UC Davis (6-6) committed two errors in the field, but all six runs were earned. Wolf (0-1) suffered the loss after giving up four earned runs on seven hits in five-plus innings of work. Lanza was charged with two earned runs on five hits in three-plus innings.
The Wildcats, leading just 1-0 at the time, turned a key double play in the fifth inning to turn away perhaps the Aggies' biggest scoring threat. Back-to-back one-out singles put runners at the corners, but Long was able to get Adam Young to ground to Mejia at shortstop. Mejia cleanly tossed to Gilbert at second base, who then made a brilliant turn to first with a runner sliding at his feet for the inning-ending double play.
Offensively, eight of UA's starting nine hitters collected a base hit, led by Rickard, Refsnyder, Gilbert and Maggi's two-hit games. Refsnyder extended his hitting streak to all 11 games this season and 13 games overall.
The two clubs wrap up the brief two-game series on Wednesday. First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m. (MST) at Hi Corbett Field.
