In what a series that will determine how the Pac-12 plays out, Arizona (33-18, 14-11 Pac-12) failed to set the tone on Friday night falling to the No. 1 team in the nation and the conference, Oregon State 12-9 at Hi Corbett Field.
With the game tied at five going into the eighth inning, a seven-run rally from the Beavers (40-9, 19-6 Pac-12) in the eighth inning all but sealed the game.
Right-handed pitcher TJ Nichols got the no-decision in his five inning start where he gave up five earned runs on seven hits, five walks and striking out four Beavers. His 107 pitches thrown on the night were in large part to the good at-bats OSU had throughout the game.
Arizona struggled the whole game with their pitchers keeping their pitch count down with Oregon State fouling off a lot of pitches all night. In comparison between the two pitching staffs, the Wildcats’ pitchers tossed 100 balls while the Beavers only threw 50 balls with a strike percentage of 66% on the night.
“It’s frustrating at times,” catcher Daniel Susac said about his pitchers throwing long at-bats. “I think it was [OSU pinch-hitter Jabin Trosky]. Think vs. Trevor [Long]. Just keep fouling off pitches, fouling them off and then eventually walked. You’re just like, what can you ask from Trevor? He kept throwing strikes and eventually threw one, I mean, probably a ball over the plate and he took it, so just a good at-bat…”
Following Nichols’ start, head coach Chip Hale called upon the arms of Quinn Flanagan and Long with the latter struggling only going one inning but giving up five runs and two walks and throwing 39 pitches in the inning that was highlighted by Trosky’s long at-bat. Flanagan was more effective, going 1 ⅓ shut-out innings all while striking out and walking a pair.
The Wildcats finished out the game using Holden Christian and Josh Randall with Christian giving up two runs in ⅔ innings and Randall throwing a clean shut-out final inning. Combined, the Wildcats threw 233 pitches with five pitchers as opposed to Oregon State only throwing 148 pitches while only using three arms.
“I mean, it’s just tough to keep executing,” Hale said about Oregon State’s batters fouling off a bunch of pitches. “You know that means we talk to our hitters all the time but the deeper you get into the at-bat the more quality pitches they have to make against you. So yeah, demoralized, I don’t know if that’s the word used but just it’s very competitive. That’s why they’re number one in the country.”
On the offensive side of the ball, the Wildcats had an up and down night. Despite striking out a total of 12 times as a team and walking only three times opposed to OSU’s 10 walks as a team, the Wildcats also had Noah Turley and Tanner O’Tremba lead off the eighth and ninth innings with moonshot home runs that helped the Cats spark up a four-run rally over the final two innings to counteract the Beavers seven-run rally in the eighth.
Arizona was overall successful against OSU’s starter with guys such as Mac Bingham, Chase Davis and Nik McClaughry having multi-hit games with Bingham and Davis combining for three of the team’s RBIs. Susac and McClaughry also combined to score five of the team’s runs.
“I think the amount of time and effort we put into him, in my opinion was the most we’ve put into a pitcher all year,” Susac said regarding the team’s success against the starter. “We knew it was going to be a tough one. We knew he’s a deceptive guy comes out there from really far out. He’s from actually right around my hometown so I’ve always known about him. I think he kind of went under the radar in high school just because his high school is not very known. But he’s a really good pitcher and we put in a lot of time we set up the machines for him everything…”
With the loss, the Wildcats now sit five games behind the Beavers out of first with Stanford in second by two games and UCLA in third by a game.
Arizona looks ahead to game two with left-handed pitcher Garrett Irvin getting the start on Saturday. First pitch is at 6:05pm (MST) and will be broadcast on Pac-12 Oregon.
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