Box Score
TUCSON, Arizona- The Arizona baseball team downed Texas A&M 12-5 at Sancet Field Saturday afternoon for its fifth consecutive win. Eight Wildcat starters collected at least one hit on the afternoon and junior Brian Pemble was superb in relief of starter Sean Rierson. The left-hander tossed 4.2 innings of hitless ball to earn his second victory of the season. The Wildcats improved to 10-7 on the season while A&M fell to 3-3.
Trailing 2-1 after two-and-half innings, the Wildcat offense erupted in the third for eight runs, all coming with two outs, on six hits to break the game wide open and give Arizona a 9-2 advantage. Leading the charge for Arizona was senior Ernie Durazo who's three run double cleared the bases while extending his career-high hittting streak to 20 games. Designated hitter Kyle Tasco drove in two runs for the Cats in the inning while junior Justyn St. Clair and sophomore Ken Riley each had an RBI apiece. The eight runs were the most scored in an inning for the Wildcats this season.
Rierson, who struck out two and walked two on the day, would find himself in trouble with one out in the fifth. Having already surrendered two runs in the inning to close the lead to 9-5, the freshman righthander was forced from the game as the Aggies loaded the bases and looked pull even closer. Enter Pemble, who enticed pinch hitter Kevin Theiss to pop out to short and got catcher Rusty Meyer to fly out to Shelley Duncan in right to end the inning and preserve the lead.
From there on the junior southpaw was in control. Pemble would cruise through the Aggie batting order, retiring the side in order in the sixth, seventh and ninth innings, with his only blemish coming in the form of a leadoff walk in the eighth. He would strike out four A&M hitters on the afternoon.
In addition to Durazo's three RBI performance, senior Erik Torres continued his torrid hitting for the Cats. The senior's 3-for-3, run scored and two RBI performance improved his average to .750 for the series. The third baseman has collected a double, a triple, two runs and four RBI in the two games. Other Cats with impressive outings were Riley, who finished the game 2-for-4 with two RBI and two runs scored, and St. Clair, who tallied three hits a RBI and two runs.
The Cats and Aggies meet for the third and final game of the series tomorrow at 1 p.m.
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