The Arizona baseball team had a major bounce-back effort on Sunday afternoon after dropping the first two games of the series to visiting West Virginia. Center fielder Mac Bingham hit two home runs and accounted for seven RBIs on the day. With the win, Arizona improves to 4-3 on the season with its next game coming up Tuesday night at home against California Baptist.

“I've been working a lot in the cage, just trying to back the ball up a little bit, which was my issue earlier,” Bingham said after the game. “I was going out to get the balls, and I didn't think it was anything mechanical. Was on the phone with my mom, I told her it's only a matter of time”.

Two days after stealing home to give West Virginia a 6-5 lead in the 11th inning, sophomore infielder JJ Wetherholt got things going in the first inning Sunday with a home run to left field off junior left-hander Bradon Zastrow on the mound for Arizona.

Arizona, however, jumped out to a 6-1 lead through three innings on its way to a massive offensive day in which the ‘Cats tallied 20 hits as a team.

Following a West Virginia pitching change, the Arizona offense looked to blow open a 7-4 ballgame with the bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the fifth inning on Sunday. Senior shortstop Nik McClaughry came through in one of the biggest opportunities of the weekend for the Wildcats, scoring two runs on an RBI single up the middle that pushed their lead on the day to 9-4.

Bingham crushed his second home run of the day to deep left field on the next at-bat to make it a 12-4 Arizona lead as West Virginia looked to its bullpen for a pitching change once again. An RBI single to left field from Tommy Splaine capped off a busy inning for the Arizona offense, scoring six runs in the frame.

“This is a great team win, twenty hits today. I mean, it's really impressive as far as nine innings,” said freshman right-fielder Brendan Summerhill. “A lot of guys got five at-bats. That's really good and I think that's gonna give us momentum into Tuesday and next week against North Dakota State, two great teams that are coming in here. So we're gonna need that offensive momentum”.

Zastrow allowed only one run through his first three innings as Arizona led early. He would leave the game midway through the fifth inning, however, after allowing three more runs leading to junior right-hander Dawson Netz taking over on the mound with Arizona leading 7-4. Netz (1-0) would not allow a hit during his short stint before being taken out at the top of the seventh inning. Zastrow finished with four earned runs on six hits to go along with two walks and two strikeouts.

Netz, meanwhile, earned the win after pitching 1 1/3 hitless innings on 11 pitches. He faced four batters during his time on the mound in a key situation for the Wildcats.

“I think Dawson has really solidified himself as a guy who can come in with guys on base and get us out of trouble,” said head coach Chip Hale. “That's huge in this league, and then maybe pitch another inning or two”.

Sophomore right-hander Anthony “Tonko” Susac took the mound for Arizona on Saturday night and would last until the top of the fifth inning, finishing with four earned runs, six hits, three walks and four strikeouts.

The Wildcats were held to only five hits as a team as they were outscored 5-1 in the loss.

Junior right-hander TJ Nichols got the start on Friday night and finished with four earned runs on nine hits allowed, along with six strikeouts and one walk.

The bats started off hot Friday as Arizona had the game tied 5-5 through nine innings. However, they were unable to generate runs in extra innings before West Virginia took the lead in the 11th inning following Wetherholt stealing home, leading to another Mountaineer victory by a score of 6-5.

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