Arizona won the outright Pac-12 title Friday night thanks to a loss from Oregon to Cal up in Berkeley. However, the Wildcats weren't in much of a celebrating mood back in Tucson as the second game of their series against Dixie State turned into a loss for the home team.
Every win is valuable for UA (39-15) as it looks to continue making its case for a top-eight national seed in the upcoming NCAA Tournament that would secure home-field advantage for the regional and super regional rounds.
Friday's 11-9 loss to sub-.500 Dixie State certainly won't help the Wildcats' cause.
Arizona had more hits and extra base hits than the Trailblazers (24-31) in Friday's matchup, but a few big innings and timely hits helped give the WAC's fourth-place team just its seventh road victory of the year.
It was an unexpected outcome after the Wildcats came back from a couple runs down to earn their 39th victory of the season in the first game of the series Thursday night. Still, head coach Jay Johnson is viewing the defeat as a mere bump in the road going into the final day of the regular season.
"There's no drama with anything," he said. "Dixie beat us. Those guys hit a lot of line drives, and a lot of balls were really hit hard tonight. Capitalized on some mistakes, be it walks or a couple non-plays on defense.
"So, I mean they beat us. We've responded well each time to any kind of failure this year, so we need to do that tomorrow."
Arizona looked like it would be on its way to an easy win through the first three innings after jumping out to a 7-3 lead.
The offense was rolling through that third frame as the Wildcats had four hits ahead of a grand slam home run from third baseman Tony Bullard to give Arizona five runs in that inning.
It was the second home run of the day for Bullard as he hit a solo home run in the second inning to help the Wildcats take an earlier 2-0 lead on Dixie State.
The sophomore finished the game with three hits, two runs and five RBIs in the loss.
"Man, that was a couple pretty good swings tonight," Johnson said of Bullard's performance. "That's a big lift for our team. Really, really extends the lineup when he's taking the at-bats like he has here recently."
Arizona ran into some trouble on the mound Friday night as starter Chase Silseth had his shortest outing of the season at Hi Corbett Field. The sophomore lasted just 3 2/3 innings after giving up six runs on five hits to go with three walks. Though he did strike out a game-high seven batters in his 15th start of the year.
The UA bullpen didn't fare much better over the final 5 1/3 innings. The Wildcats used five different pitchers over that span and all but one surrendered at least one run.
Sophomore right-hander Quinn Flanagan suffered his fourth loss of the season after giving up one run on two hits without retiring a batter in the sixth inning in relief of Ian Churchill.
That inning proved to be crucial in the game as Dixie State was able to score three runs with the help of three hits and two walks. The go-ahead run came by way of a wild pitch from the Wildcats.
Arizona will regroup and look to win the series as the regular season comes to an end Friday in the final game of the three-game set. First pitch is set for 6 p.m., but the Wildcats will host Senior Day activities ahead of the matchup.
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