HOUSTON – On a beautiful evening for baseball in Houston, the Arizona Wildcats (2-0) took game two of the series from No. 24 Rice (0-2) by a score of 6-2. Bobby Dalbec (1-0) earned his first win of the season as he finished the game after Cameron Ming gave Arizona 6.1 solid innings in his first-career start.
“To come out last night and play solid, be in a tight game tonight with it being 2-2 in the eighth inning and to find a way to win is a good start,” head coach Jay Johnson said. “It's not going to be clean all the time for any team in the country All of the head coaches are spending time trying to figure things out and the only way you do that is to play good opponents. It's good for us to be here and to be able to win a couple games.”
Cody Ramer stayed hot as he went 4-4 with two doubles and one RBI. In the first two games of the 2016 season, the senior is 6-8 with three RBI. In 2015, Ramer only had eight hits and four RBI. Ryan Aguilar also chipped in four hits on the night as he went 4-5 with an RBI.
“It was awesome because we remember how last year went,” Ramer said. “They are a really good team and it's good to come out and get two wins. The coaching staff did a 180 with my swing and helped me more than I could ever imagine.”
The Wildcats jumped on the Owls quickly in the top of the first as Cody Ramer stayed hot and ripped a double down the left field line to start the game. Jared Oliva then bunted him over to third base and Ryan Aguilar brought him home on a double of his own.
Ming got into some trouble in the bottom of the second after allowing a leadoff single and a bunt base hit. Connor Tekyl came up to bat with the thought of moving over the runners via the bunt. However, his bunt went straight to Ming, who caught the ball and doubled off the runner at second. The next batter flied out to left and the Wildcats were out of the inning just like that.
Both pitchers settled in as neither team scored between the second and sixth innings. Things started to heat up once the seventh inning began.
After Justin Behnke reached on an infield single, Ramer collected his second double of the game and extended Arizona's lead to 2-0 as Behnke hustled to score from first base.
Rice got on the board in the bottom of the seventh as they loaded the bases and knocked Ming out of the game after Ford Proctor drove in one run. Dalbec came in with the bases loaded, and the Owls tied the game on a sacrifice fly. Dalbec was able to get the next better to foul out to third base.
The fun really began in the top of the eighth as Arizona was able to plate four runs in the inning. Aguilar stared off the inning with a single and then Dalbec sacrificed him to second base, but there was no one covering third base so Aguilar capitalized and advanced to third. Louis Boyd then executed the squeeze play and the throw from first baseman Blake Fox to catcher Dominic DiCaprio was off target, allowing Aguilar to score. Boyd then advanced to second on the bad throw. Zach Gibbons stepped up and singled down the left field line, advancing Boyd to third base. Sawyer Gieseke stepped up to the dish and also attempted a squeeze play. This time, third baseman Dane Meyers fielded it and realized he did not have a play at the plate, so he made a throw to first, but it was off target and Gieseke was safe. Gibbons, who had stolen second earlier came around to score after Fox's throw home was also off target, which also advanced Gieseke to second base. After a wild pitch that allowed Gieseke to move to third base, Cesar Salazar hit a sacrifice fly to left field and Gieseke scored. At the end of the inning, the score was 6-2 Arizona.
Dalbec (1-0) stayed in to pitch in the eighth and ninth innings and shut things down. The Wildcats will go for the sweep tomorrow at noon MST.
Game Notes
Cody Ramer's four hits is a career high for the senior. His previous career high was three against Alcorn State on Feb. 23, 2014.
Cameron Ming had never thrown more than four innings in a game and he went 6.1 today. His previous career high was last year against Rice on Feb. 22.
Ryan Aguilar had never had a multi-hit game in his career. Tonight, he went 4-5 with an RBI.
Arizona has now won 22-straight opening weekend series dating back to 1995. In that time, the Wildcats are 55-11.
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