Oregon State sweeps Arizona baseball

By LUKE DELLA Published March 18, 2013 at 2:59am Updated March 18, 2013 at 2:59am

For the first time in nearly three years, Arizona was swept in a three-game weekend series. The No. 20 Wildcats (15-8, 0-3 Pac-12) lost all three games to No. 4 Oregon State (19-1, 3-0) at Hi Corbett Field.

In the three games, Arizona’s offense struggled to execute with runners on base and starting pitchers couldn’t keep the Beavers from scoring early. Oregon State beat the Wildcats 6-2 on Friday, 4-3 on Saturday and 8-4 on Sunday.

“We didn’t really do anything good this weekend,” center fielder Johnny Field said. “It was embarrassing. We didn’t play up to our potential.”

In games two and three of the series, Arizona left 18 runners on base. The Wildcats were one of the top scoring teams in the conference, entering the series but never coming close to scoring their average of 7.2 runs per game.

Arizona’s top run producer and third baseman Brandon Dixon only went 3-13 with zero runs batted in against the Beavers. Dixon had also reached base successfully in every single game of the season until Saturday.

“We got guys on base, but we couldn’t get that hit,” Field said. “We need to manufacture runs better, especially when we get those runners on in scoring position.”

The Beavers weren’t one of the best offenses going into the weekend series but their pitching rotation was superb. At 1.19, Oregon State had the lowest earned run average in the country— much lower than Arizona’s 3.58.

The Wildcats’ three starting pitchers, Konner Wade, James Farris and Cody Moffett, pitched a total of 16.1 innings giving up 14 earned runs in the three games.

“[The starting pitchers] did good, but they can do a lot better,” Field said. “They can do better at not giving runs up early, which puts us in a hole early.”

However, Arizona’s relief pitchers did good job at holding the Beavers. Five Wildcat pitchers came out of the bullpen for head coach Andy Lopez: Augey Bill, Tyler Crawford, Nick Cunningham, Tyger Talley and Mathew Troupe. In 10.2 innings of work, the bullpen only gave up two runs this weekend, all by Cunningham.

Sunday’s loss ended Arizona’s 18-game home stand. The Wildcats went 11-7 on the home stand. They are 14-7 overall this season at Hi Corbett. Next week, Arizona will travel to Eugene, Ore. to play No. 12 Oregon. It will be the Wildcats’ first roadtrip since the Feb. 19 trip to Long Beach, Calif. Arizona split that series with the Dirtbags. Friday’s game against the Ducks will be televised live on the Pac-12 Network. It will be the Wildcats first broadcast game on the network.

“[Oregon State] is a really good team but we’re just as talented,” Field said. “We just aren’t playing up to our potential yet. And we need to turn that around now.”