LOS ANGELES, Calif. – The Arizona Wildcats had to wait about 15 hours or so, but opened Pac-12 play in style Saturday, sweeping a doubleheader from UCLA at Jackie Robinson Stadium to move to 15-3 on the season.
The Wildcats won the opener 19-4 and then came from behind to top the Bruins in the nightcap, 4-3. Arizona will now go for the series sweep Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. The game will be televised on Pac-12 Arizona.
The opening game of the series was originally scheduled for Friday night, but was postponed in the top of the second inning due to heavy fog in the area. The game was called with Nick Quintana on third after he tripled with one out into the fog. The game was halted after his triple into the fog and postponed until 1 p.m., Saturday.
Two pitches in on Saturday, catcher
Cesar Salazar singled to center to score Quintana and give the Cats an early lead after having to wait a night to resume the game. Senior left-hander
JC Cloney, who started Friday's affair, stayed on the mound Saturday and pitched a scoreless second.
While Cloney was settling in, his offense was poised for an explosion in the first conference game of the season.
In the third, leading 1-0,
Mitchell Morimoto and
JJ Matijevic produced back-to-back one-out singles to put runners on the corners for
Jared Oliva. Oliva dropped down a bunt single to score Morimoto and make it 2-0. Quintana followed with an RBI single and
Kyle Lewis later singled with two outs to score Oliva and make it 4-0.
The Bruins got one run off Cloney in the third, but the Cats' bats were back in the fourth to give Cloney plenty of support.
Oliva came up with one out and the baes loaded and tripled off the top of the wall in center to clear the bases and make it 7-1. Quintana followed with a single to second base to score Oliva and stretch it to 8-1.
After scoring three in the third and four in the fourth, the Cats stayed with the schedule and scored five in the fifth inning. With one run already in on an error, Matijevic came up with two on and drilled a home run over the batting cages in right field to make it 12-1. It was Matijevic's second home run of the season and ninth for his career. Lewis again singled later in the inning to make it 13-1.
It was stretched to 15-1 an inning later when Quintana produced his fourth hit of the game, a double off the wall in left, to bring two more home. The Bruins got a pair back in the bottom half, but Alfonso Rivas extended the lead right back to 14 with a two-run home run to right to make it 17-3.
Arizona capped its scoring in the ninth with a two-run double from freshman
Shane Martinez. All total, the Cats banged out 22 hits and scored at least 17 runs for the fourth time in five games.
Quintana and Matijevic each finished with four-hit games in the win to pace the Cats. Quintana was 4 for 7 with four RBI, a double and a triple. Matijevic was 4 for 6 with three runs scored, three RBI and a home run. Morimoto was 3 for 4 with five runs scored. Oliva, Salazar, Lewis and second baseman
Cameron Cannon all had two hits apiece.
Cloney went five innings, allowing one earned run on five hits and striking out four. He's now 5-0 in five starts this season.
In the second game, Arizona trailed 3-0 after five innings, but scored three in the sixth to tie it up. Stevenson and Rivas had back-to-back one-out doubles to plate the first run of the game for the Cats and cut the lead to 3-1. Two batters later, Matijevic doubled to score Rivas and make it 3-2. The next batter,
Jared Oliva singled to the opposite field to score Matijevic and tie it at three.
Randy Labaut had tossed 4 2/3 scoreless innings to keep the Cats in the game to that point. Coach
Jay Johnson then inserted closer
Cameron Ming to take over. Ming tossed scoreless innings in the seventh and eighth and the game remained tied heading to the ninth.
In the top of the ninth, the first two batters made out. Quintana then singled up the middle and Salazar singled to right on the next pitch to put two on. After Lewis drew a walk, Cannon reached on an error by the shortstop to score pinch-runner
Matt Fraizer and give Arizona a 4-3 lead.
Ming allowed a single in the ninth, but nothing else to close out the win for the Cats. The junior lefty was credited with the win, moving to 4-0 already this season. He has yet to give up an earned run.
Rivas and Salazar each paced the Cats with two hits apiece in the finale. Johnson has yet to announce a starter for Sunday's finale.
