Arizona’s first game of its 2021 season resulted in a 3-0 shutout win over Ball State Friday night. If this game was a sneak peak into the future, the rest of their season looks pretty bright for the Wildcats.
Newcomer Chase Silseth from the College of Southern Nevada was on the mound to throw the first pitch at Hi Corbett in nearly a year since last season's cancellation back in March. He was a hot topic and a stand out to both coaches and players during the offseason.
After being talked up so highly, he didn’t disappoint.
Silseth only gave up 3 hits and struck out seven batters while allowing just two walks over a 5.2-inning stretch to earn the win. Senior Preston Price, junior Ian Churchill, and senior Vince Vannelle all saw the mound out of the bullpen Friday night all contributing to the impressive 14 total strikeouts by the UA pitching staff in the victory.
Price showed up in a big way with a strikeout just in time as the were bases loaded with two outs when he took over for Silseth in the sixth inning. Ball State center fielder Aaron Simpson went down swinging as Price was able to get the Wildcats out of their jam.
“Silseth’s doing great, he’s been great ever since he’s stepped foot here,” sophomore designated hitter Ryan Holgate said of UA's impressive pitching performance Friday. “Just seeing the guys come out of the pen it just kind of made me smile because we’re super confident in them now and we know what they can do. They’ve been great, it’s just awesome.”
Something that could have been a distraction Friday was the 16 major league scouts that were in attendance. But Silseth says he’s not worried about that affecting his performance.
“I’m aware they’re there, but I try to block that out,” he said. “I try to block anything out between the white lines, it’s just me and the hitter at that point.”
The Wildcats were vocal and engaged in the game both on the field and in the dugout Friday night and it helped lead to an important moment in the game. One of the biggest errors of the night coming from Ball State happened when pinch hitter Decker Scheffler reached third based and completed what looked to be a triple. Arizona players quickly realized he had missed the bag and tagged him out.
“Brenden (Boissiere) at first is whose job it is to watch that as well as the dugout,” said coach Jay Johnson. “At second it was also Brenden who was trailing the runner, then the dugout picked it up, and then as coaches we alerted it and it was pretty awesome.”
Holgate started the momentum for Arizona early during the first inning after getting two RBIs bringing in second baseman Kobe Kato and sophomore first baseman Branden Boissiere. Boissiere also contributed later in the game with his own RBI that allowed junior center fielder Donta' Williams to score.
Despite Friday night's shutout performance, Johnson is looking forward to the rest of the series as the Wildcats are set to face some talented pitchers over the next few days.
“Tomorrow, Chayce McDermott is a high draft prospect,” Johnson said. “Then John Baker on Sunday is one of the best pitchers in the history of Ball State and the MAC conference. So, we are going to have to get better.”
The Wildcats will return to Hi Corbett Field on Saturday for the second game against the Cardinals starting at 6 p.m. MST.
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