The Arizona Wildcats beat the Baylor Bears in the first round of the Fort Worth Regional on Friday by a score of 10-9. The Cats were up 10-4 in the ninth inning but had to hold off a serious rally by the Bears who put up 5 runs in the last frame.
(Heyer hung in there all day)
Steve Selsky hit a solo home run in the top of the fourth to tie the game 1-1. Later in the fourth inning, Josh Garcia launched a two run bomb to give the Cats a 3-1 lead. Kurt Heyer was unable to hold on to the lead as the Bears jumped ahead 4-3 in the bottom of the fourth inning.
The Cats didn't panic and they scored 5 runs in the top of the sixth inning. Heyer was able to settle down and work himself out of a few jams late in the game leading up to the ninth inning. Baylor loaded the bases in the seventh inning but reliever Vincent Littleman was able to get the Cats out of trouble and Baylor stranded all three runners.
Littleman pitched to the ninth inning where he issued a walk and a hit in the ninth before being replaced by Bryce Bandilla. The Cats were seemingly out of the inning and done with the game but Alex Mejia's throw to first was low and an error was charged. The game ended when Bandilla was able to get Raynor Campbell to fly out to right.
(Mejia was huge on Friday)
Alex Mejia had a huge game in the 9th hole going 3-4 with 4 RBI's.
Coach Lopez had this to say after the game:
"Obviously that's a great one to win, a tough one to lose. If you've been coaching long enough then you've been on both ends of those types of ball games. Credit to Baylor with the way they battled back. One thing our guys are doing over the last four to five weeks is they are starting to get old. And from a head coaches perspective I am very proud of them. Obviously we played well, although Bryce Bandilla is really struggling with the heat. He is in the locker room shaking right now, very dehydrated, but he kept pitching."
The Cats will move on to play TCU who trounced Lamar in their opener 16-3. This game will be on Saturday at 7:00 C.D.T.