No. 12 seed Ole Miss answered Arizona's offensive explosion in the first game with its own big night at the plate Saturday. Meanwhile, the Wildcats struggled to bring in runs despite having 10 hits in the second game of the teams' Super Regional matchup at Hi Corbett Field. In the end it led to the Rebels tying up the series with a 12-3 victory in front of a UA postseason record crowd of 7,450 fans.
Arizona starting pitcher Garrett Irvin couldn't replicate his impressive performance from the Tucson Regional last week when he went the distance and gave up just three hits in a shutout over UC Santa Barbara.
Saturday night Irvin didn't make it out of the second inning as he surrendered seven runs on seven hits, including two home runs, in just 1 1/3 innings on the mound. It was the second night in a row the Rebels jumped on Arizona's starter after scoring three runs in the first inning Friday night.
Fifth-seeded UA recovered in that game with nine unanswered runs to go ahead 1-0 in the series, but it had no such luck Saturday.
The Wildcats left 10 runners on base as they struggled to come up with enough clutch hits to catch up to Ole Miss after the early seven-run blow through the first two innings. While UA had its struggles at the plate Saturday, Ole Miss lefty pitcher Doug Nikhazy certainly deserves some of the credit for making life difficult on the Wildcats.
He finished the game with 10 strikeouts thanks in large part to a devastating curveball that UA batters struggled to hit throughout the evening.
"He just filled up the zone really well," UA first baseman Branden Boissiere said of Nikhazy. "I think tonight he was aggressive in every count, and he was throwing his off-speed pitches for strikes in every count whether it was 3-0, 3-1 or 3-2. So, I think that kept us off balance a little bit tonight."
Boissiere was the standout offensive performer of the night for Arizona as he had a game-high four hits while center fielder Donta' Williams and designated hitter Jacob Berry each had two. Williams provided the team with some late excitement with a solo home run in the seventh inning, which was his second home run of the weekend.
The Wildcats are now set to turn the page and use some of what they have experienced previously this season to their advantage in a winner-take-all game Sunday against Ole Miss. Arizona has been able to routinely bounce back from adversity this season with success, and the plan is to do the same again Sunday with a chance to advance to College World Series on the line.
"We've had these struggles during the season and we know how to rebound from them," Boissiere said after Saturday's loss. "I think we're ready for tomorrow. We're excited to compete to go to the College World Series, so I think we're gonna really work hard together as a team tomorrow."
Despite the lopsided loss Saturday night, UA head coach Jay Johnson saw enough positive things from his team this year to give him confidence about the Wildcats' chances of bouncing back to win the series and advance to the College World Series for the first time since 2016.
"If you had one game to play on our field with this team to go to the College World Series I'd take it 1,000 times out of 1,000," he said. "So, we feel good about it."
Sunday's matchup to decide the winner of the Tucson Super Regional is set to begin at 6 p.m. MST with ESPN2 broadcasting the game.
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