TUCSON, Ariz. – The Arizona Wildcats stayed perfect at Hi Corbett Field on Tuesday night, beating New Mexico State 5-4 in front of 2,026 fans. The Wildcats improved to 5-3 on the season and 4-0 on their home field.
The Wildcats used a five-run fourth inning to earn the win and senior right-hander
Juan Aguilera earned his first win of the season. Fellow senior righty
Tylor Megill earned his third save in just eight games, pitching two scoreless innings and retiring the final six batters he faced after a leadoff double.
The Aggies, coming off a weekend in which they scored 74 runs in three games, struck first when Caleb Henderson led off the fourth inning with a double to right center. After advancing to third on a wild pitch, he scored on a sacrifice fly by Trey Stine.
The Wildcats responded quickly by scoring five runs in the bottom half of the inning.
Cesar Salazar led off the inning with a sharp base hit through the middle, followed by a
Tate Soderstrom base hit through the right side.
With two on, senior
Ryan Haug advanced both runners with a sacrifice bunt.
Mitchell Morimoto came on to pinch-hit for freshman
Donta Williams and delivered with a hard ground ball up the middle. New Mexico State second baseman Bruno Teramoto threw the ball away allowing both Salazar and Soderstrom to score with Morimoto reaching second base.
Freshman shortstop
Jacob Blas then reached on an infield single moving Morimoto to third. Matt Frazier reached first after he laid down a sacrifice bunt, which scored Morimoto. Fraizer reached when the ball was dropped by Teramoto. The inning for the Cats continued as
Cameron Cannon executed another sacrifice bunt, which plated Blas. Alfonso Rivas delivered next with a base hit to center that scored Frazier for the Cats fifth run of the frame.
The Aggies got one back in the fifth inning to make it 5-2.
In the top half of the seventh, the Aggies added two more runs on a pair of base hits and a Wildcat error. With runners on second and third, New Mexico State scored a run on a ground out and then Mason Fishback drove in the second run of the inning on a base hit to left field.
Megill entered to start the eighth, and allowed a double to Henderson to start the inning. But the righty struck out Stine, got David Bellamy to fly out and punched out Nick Gonzales to get through the inning without any harm.
In the ninth, Megill struck out Marcus Still to open the inning and then got a pair of groundouts to lock the game down and earn his third save of the season. Megill has a 1.23 ERA on the season now, striking out 10 in 7 1/3 innings.
Salazar finished the game 3 for 3 with a run scored, and Cannon went 2 for 4 with an RBI. Blas, making his first start of the season, went 1 for 2 with a run scored and a walk. Morimoto was 0 for 1, but had an RBI, a run scored and walked twice.
The Cats will now take the next two days off and return to action Friday night in Minneapolis for the Dairy Queen Pac-12/Big 10 Challenge. Arizona opens with Minnesota, before playing Illinois and Michigan State. The team's next home game is March 6 against San Diego State.
