The Arizona Wildcats opened up Friday's doubleheader with a dominant 7-1 win over the Samford Bulldogs.
Tyger Talley did particularly well, given that he was working on just four days' rest after starting Sunday's game against Rice. The junior righty went 6+ innings Friday afternoon, surrendering just two hits and walking two Bulldogs.
The lone run he was charged with came after giving up an infield single and committing a throwing error. Talley was then replaced by Cody Hamlin, who let Austin Edens score two groundouts later. Hamlin threw three hitless innings only three days after Andy Lopez called him out for struggling on the mound Tuesday.
Arizona got the scoring started in the third inning. After Zach Gibbons and Justin Behnke started the inning with a walk and infield single respectively, Scott Kingery bunted the ball back to the pitcher. A throwing error by the Samford pitcher on the play allowed Gibbons to score.
Three batters later, Bobby Dalbec singled up the middle to bring home Behnke and Kevin Newman, who had walked after Gibbons was thrown out trying to steal second.
Dalbec had a great game, going 3-for-3 with four RBI and was hit by a pitch. His other two RBI came in the 7th inning when he singled to center to bring in Kingery and Newman.
Arizona also scored a couple of runs in the sixth inning. Dalbec was hit, Joseph Maggi recorded his first hit of the season, and Handsome Monica walked to set up Gibbons. The right fielder singled to right center to bring in Dalbec and Maggi to make the score 5-0 at the time.
Maggi's second appearance of the season came on Wednesday against Oakland, when he was a defensive replacement for Sawyer Gieseke. He also played a half inning in center field against Rice on Friday. It looks like Maggi has taken Gieseke's spot as the primary defensive replacement in the late innings for JJ Matijevic at first base.
It wasn't all good for the Wildcats, as the team had four errors in the game. Andy Lopez had said on Wednesday that the defensive issues were fixed, but that wasn't true on Friday afternoon.
The Cats are right back at it at 3 PM MST against host team Mississippi State. Austin Schnabel will get the start on the mound for the Wildcats against MSU's Preston Brown. The game will be broadcast on SEC Network + and WatchESPN.