After evening its three-game series against USC on Saturday, Arizona dropped the rubber match Sunday afternoon losing to the Trojans, 8-5, at Dedeaux Field.

Right-handed pitcher Anthony Susac had a brief outing, only going 2 1/3 innings while giving up three earned runs and five hits for the Wildcats. He also walked a pair of batters but most notably, he did not strike out any Trojans. Susac took the no decision in the game.

After struggling, Susac’s ERA is now sitting at 7.55 on the season.

Offensively, the Wildcats (33-17, 14-10 Pac-12) had nine hits as a team and were led by the multi-hit games of shortstop Nik McClaughry and first baseman Noah Turley who went 2-for-5 and 2-for-4, respectively. However, it was the one-hit wonders who provided the runs as Daniel Susac hit a sacrifice fly to score McClaughry and Chase Davis homered in the first inning to give Arizona an early 2-0 lead.

After falling behind in the fourth inning, Tony Bullard came out the following inning and delivered a three-run double that allowed Susac, Davis and Tanner O’Tremba to cross the plate putting the Cats up 5-4.

However, as has been the issue with the Wildcats throughout the duration of the series, the team stranded 10 runners on base despite lowering their strikeout numbers. The heart of the order also went 3-for-12 putting them at a combined 8-for-35 in the series.

After Susac exited the game, the bullpen led the Wildcats on another middle-inning collapse with left-handed pitcher Eric Orloff giving up four earned runs over only 1 2/3 innings of work. Orloff’s outing was bailed out by clean outings from Chris Barraza, Quinn Flanagan, Chandler Murphy and George Arias Jr. Left-handed pitcher Javyn Pimental also had a solid performance only giving up one run in the seventh and finishing with two innings of work.

After losing the series to the Trojans (24-21, 8-16), the Wildcats and UCLA (30-17, 14-10) are still one game behind Stanford for second in the Pac-12 and are still sitting four games behind Oregon State (38-9, 18-6) with six games left in the season.

Arizona will now shift its focus to its biggest challenge of the season when the Wildcats host the Beavers for a three-game home series at Hi Corbett Field beginning with a Friday night showdown. First pitch will be at 7 p.m. (MST), and the game will be televised being broadcast on Pac-12 Networks.

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