Box Score
TUCSON, Ariz.- Junior Shelley Duncan tied an Arizona single-game record for home runs and helped the Wildcats escape a five error game to win 8-7 over Utah Friday afternoon. Powered by Duncan's three home runs in three consecutive at-bats, the Wildcats extended their season long winning streak to seven straight while upping their record to 12-7. The Utes, who had won seven of their last eight, dropped to an even 7-7 on the year.
Duncan, who finished the game 4-for-4 with five RBI and four runs scored, hit a two-run, two-out blast in the second, a two-run bomb in the fifth and a solo shot that would prove to be the game winning run in seventh. The three round trippers ties Dennis Haines (1979), Ron Hassey (1974) and teammate Erik Torres (2000) for the most home runs in a single game for an Arizona player.
Duncan's achievements only added drama to an already exciting game. Arizona starter Marc Kaiser and the Wildcat defense would get off to a rough start. The Cats would surrender two unearned runs in the top of the second on four errors and three walks and two more runs in the third on a sac-fly by UU's Brit Pannier and an RBI triple by Sam Swenson to up the score to 4-1.
Trailing for the fourth straight game, the Cats would again rally. Powered by Duncan's two run blast in third to cut the lead to 4-3 and Torres' RBI triple in the fifth to even the score, Arizona would find themselves ahead 6-4 after Duncan's second money ball and 7-4 on Ken Riley's RBI single to score Kenny Huff in the fifth.
The Utes would score two in the top of the sixth to pull within one at 7-6, but Duncan would again prove to be too much as he hit his third dinger in the bottom of the seventh to give the Cats an insurance run.
Reliever Joe Little, who held the Arizona lead through 3.1 innings, would find himself in trouble with one out in the top of ninth. After surrendering a hit to Pannier, Arizona pitching coach Bill Kinneberg called on the Wildcats' closer Daryl DeSalvo to end the game. DeSalvo, who would earn his team-high fourth save, struck out Utah's Tommy Maestas looking for the second out, but the Utes would make things interesting. The next hitter, left fielder Tommy Saba, drove DeSalvo's 3-2 offering down the right field line for an RBI double to bring the Utes within one. A DeSalvo wild pitch would advance Saba to third and 90 feet away from a tie game, but DeSalvo would catch leadoff hitter Adam Castleton fishing for his 2-2 pitch to end the game.
The Wildcats out-hit the Utes 12-10 for the afternoon. In addition to Duncan's impressive afternoon, senior Ernie Durazo extended his hitting streak to 23 straight with his team-leading eighth double, he has also scored a run in 12 consecutive games. Junior Brad Hassey was 2-for-5 to add to his nine game hitting streak. The shortstop led off in five of the eight innings for Arizona. Riley finished 1-for-3 with two RBI. Kaiser (4-1) would earn his third straight victory with a five-inning, seven walk and five strikeout performance.
The Wildcats and Utes meet up tomorrow for game two of the three game set at 1 p.m.
