Arizona continues its long home stand this week with a midweek game against Michigan State Tuesday night at Hi Corbett Field. It was an interesting weekend for the Wildcats (8-4) as Jay Johnson's squad needed a miracle ninth inning to secure a series win over Wisconsin-Milwaukee last weekend.
If not for the five-run ninth inning Sunday the Wildcats would have dropped their first nonconference home series under Johnson. The Wildcats dropped a midweek game to New Mexico last week and for Johnson there is a certain type of pressure he wants teams to be up against when they face UA.
"I think we'd won like 36 or 37 games in a row against non-Pac-12 teams that's awesome," Johnson said after Friday night's win in the series opener. "In baseball that's something. A lot is made about our basketball program and how they're good at McKale [Center], which really blows my mind. And that's something we said we wanted to do here.
"... So, to see them bounce back and be in a mode where it was maybe gonna be a tight game and then respond is the best thing that I saw. We want to embrace being in close games, because let's be honest with what's coming forward here that's how it's gonna go."
While Wisconsin-Milwaukee came in hot with just one loss entering the weekend series, Michigan State is on the other end of that with just one win heading into Tuesday night's matchup.The Spartans will not play their first home game until late this month and are coming off the heels of being swept by Arizona State over the weekend as they make their way through Arizona.
It has been nine straight losses for MSU after winning the first game of the season over New Orleans. The closest the team has come to winning lately was Saturday night against ASU in a game that went 11 innings and ended with an 11-8 loss.
Nonconference play tends to be about feeling out a team and for coaches to get a better idea of who they want to rely on most once the conference season arrives. It's also about ironing out potential issues and right now the Wildcats have struggled some with errors and allowing big innings on the mound.
The Wildcats had eight errors in the final two games of the series with Wisconsin-Milwaukee making it difficult to replicate what they did Friday night in a 14-6 win over the Panthers. While UA's bats have been the element of the team that has saved it this year other teams have had opportunities to tee off on UA pitching with four innings of four or more runs taking place over the weekend.
It put pressure on the Wildcats to have even more productive at bats and that hasn't always added up to a recipe for success.
For UA, the goal continues to be to have productive plate appearances and find some balance overall with its pitching staff.
"I really like the dynamic of the middle of the order," Johnson said. "... Austin [Wells], who is swinging the bat and is athletic. Donta [Williams] is really starting to turn the corner and be a really good player. Then Matt [Dyer], you can do a lot of really good things in there. And that's coming after [Matt] Frazier, [Cameron] Cannon, [Ryan] Holgate and [Nick] Quintana.
"So I like how that is starting to set up for us."
Frazier has had an impressive start to the season with a current six-game hitting streak going into Tuesday night's game. He has also had at least one hit in 11 of UA's 12 games this season. Last season he had 28 RBIs and he already has 16 through just 12 games this season. He had seven hits and five RBIs in the series with Milwaukee-Wisconsin including a big home run Friday night as he continues to be one of the most consistent parts of this year's team.
"One through nine I feel like there's no hole in our lineup," Frazier said. "It's kind of scary when you have to face us."
Michigan State will have to face the UA lineup next with first pitch for Tuesday night's game set for 6 p.m. MST.
