Published Mar 14, 2021
RECAP: Arizona's bats quieted by Air Force in 5-2 loss on Saturday
circle avatar
Matt Moreno  •  GOAZCATS
Senior Editor
Twitter
@MattRMoreno

Offense hasn't been much of an issue for Arizona over the last few weeks, but Saturday night the Wildcats struggled to find hits in their first game against Air Force.

Arizona (11-4) didn't record its first hit until the sixth inning when catcher Daniel Susac hit a double to right field.

Up until that point Air Force pitcher Stevan Fairburn Jr. had been dominant as he struck out six batters and allowed just one walk to the 16 hitters he faced before Susac. That sixth inning gave the Wildcats some life, however, as third baseman Tony Bullard tripled to the gap in right bringing in UA's first run of the game as Susac scored easily from second on the play.

A base hit from center fielder Donta' Williams in the next at-bat brought in Bullard helping UA to cut what had been a 3-0 lead down to one run.

That would be all the scoring offense the Wildcats could muster the rest of the game, however, allowing the Falcons to earn their second win of the day after defeating Wichita State, 12-3, in the afternoon game on Saturday.

Second baseman Jacob Blas added another hit in the ninth inning but UA finished the game with a season-low four hits against the Falcons.

The loss marked the second in as many days for Arizona after it lost to Wichita State on Friday night, 10-9, to end a 10-game winning streak.

"I'll give the starter some credit, he pitched a really good game," UA head coach Jay Johnson said. "I thought they defended well. I thought we did hit some balls hard off of him, but we didn't get enough quality at-bats in a row to do what we needed to do. So, good job by the starter."

Like Wichita State on Friday night, Air Force jumped on Arizona's starter early in the game as the Falcons were able to score two runs in the first inning on starting pitcher Garrett Irvin. The UA left-hander was one strike away from a one-two-three inning to open the game before he allowed back-to-back walks.

Eventually both runners came around to score on a single to give the Falcons an early 2-0 lead. They would tack on one more run in the fourth inning before the Wildcats were able to bring their first run across the plate.

Irvin eventually went 5 2/3 innings on the mound for UA allowing three hits while striking out three to go with his two early walks before he turned the ball over to the UA bullpen.

Arizona's relievers on Saturday night again had some shaky moments.

Dawson Netz came in and provided the Wildcats with a strong one inning on the mound striking out two of the four batters he faced. Riley Cooper surrendered one run in his 1 2/3 innings of work for the Wildcats before Quinn Flanagan gave up another run in the ninth after recording just one out.

Randy Abshier was finally able to get the Wildcats out of the ninth inning with a groundout but the damage was done as UA went into the final half inning down three runs.

Arizona now heads into Sunday's finale against Air Force looking to earn a split in its four games over the course of the weekend. For Johnson it is about making sure his team understands that what happens Sunday needs to be separated form what took place over the last two games.

"Tomorrow's game has nothing to do with tonight's game if you don't allow it to," he said. "I think that's just a sign of growth and maturity in players. We caught a nice roll of playing well, maybe a little bit unconscious, but things aren't always gonna go your way. The key is to remain the same in your approach when things go bad.

"So, it will be a good test for our team tomorrow to do that."

First pitch for Sunday's game against Air Force is set for 2 p.m. MST.

WATCH: Arizona coach Jay Johnson discusses his team's loss on Saturday

Arizona leaders vs Air Force (Game 1)
PlayerStats

3B Tony Bullard

1-2, 1 RBI, 1 run, 1 triple, 1 walk

C Daniel Susac

1-3, 1 RBI, 1 run, 1 double

SP Garrett Irvin (0-1)

5.2 IP, 3 hits, 3 earned runs, 3 strikeouts, 2 walks

Advertisement

GAME NOTES

• Johnson was ejected in the sixth inning after a play that resulted in the final out of the inning for the Wildcats. Williams was thrown out trying to steal second base on a strikeout from Blas. Johnson believed Williams was safe on the play and didn't feel the second base umpire was in correct position to make the call. Johnson says was ejected by the umpire when he told him to "stay focused."

The UA head coach was forced to watch the rest of the game via UA's web stream from inside his office, and because of NCAA rules he was not allowed to have any input with anything on the field after his ejection.

"I'm not gonna do that again," he said. "I support my team, but I need to be in the dugout with them. That gives us the best chance to win, so I will not get myself ejected for the duration of the season."

• Johnson didn't place blame on his team's loss on the unique circumstances the Wildcats were forced to go through Saturday. The original plan was to play Wichita State on Saturday night after the Shockers had played Air Force earlier in the day. However, afternoon rain coupled with a "field administration" error that left the field without a tarp overnight led to unplayable conditions once the rain started to fall in Tucson.

That forced the two visiting teams to delay their game for a couple hours leading to Wichita State needing to use the pitcher it planned to use against the Wildcats in the evening to finish out the afternoon game.

Because of that Wichita State didn't want to play another game this weekend causing Arizona to have to pivot to a new opponent on the fly for the evening game.

"It was unsafe to where we had to stop the first game with the rainstorm," Johnson said. "... It put everybody in a pretty tough spot. So we all just talked, us three coaches, about what was right and what was fair. This is what we came up with."

****

> DISCUSS the article with other Arizona baseball fans because the Wildcats Own Omaha

> WATCH the latest videos from GOAZCATS.com and subscribe to our YouTube channel

> FOLLOW us on Twitter (@goazcatscom, @MattGOAZCATS)

> FOLLOW us on Instagram (@goazcats)

> LIKE us on Facebook

> SUBSCRIBE for all the latest Arizona Wildcats team and recruiting news (subscribe now)